Predicted Newcastle team v Arsenal – Five changes

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·2 November 2024

Predicted Newcastle team v Arsenal – Five changes

Looking at the Newcastle team v Arsenal.

Eddie Howe and his players hoping to build on that midweek cup win over Chelsea.

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Finally the fine margins, finishing and luck going in United’s favour.

With Newcastle United having played to a decent level in recent previous matches but not turning them into the number of points they could/should have done.

So what can we expect the Newcastle team v Arsenal to be?

As a starting point, this was the Newcastle team v Chelsea on Wednesday night:

Pope, Krafth, Schar, Kelly, Hall, Joelinton, Tonali, Longstaff, Willock, Gordon, Isak

Eddie Howe gave an injury and availability update on Friday morning.

It appears to be Wilson, Lascelles, Trippier, Targett and Botman will all continue to be unavailable for the time being.

“It was good to see so many players performing well, it was good to be able to rotate some of the squad [for the Chelsea cup match] and see the strength in depth we have.

“We will pick a team for Saturday according to physical wellbeing and our opponent.”

Eddie Howe on Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak:

“They both feel OK, we will assess how they feel today, 48 hours after the game.

“They have both had niggling injuries so we’ll make a decision today.

“We need to make sure whoever enters the pitch against Arsenal is in the best physical condition.”

Eddie Howe has said it will be tough to ask players to start three matches over a six day stretch, Chelsea on Sunday and Wednesday with now Arsenal on Saturday.

Five outfield players started both Chelsea matches – Lewis Hall, Fabian Schar, Sandro Tonali, Joelinton and Alexander Isak.

My predicted Newcastle team v Arsenal is significantly impacted by having the three matches in quick succession and Eddie Howe’s comments regarding that, plus of course what we know of our players and their fitness/injury history.

Nick Pope was excellent on Wednesday and will of course play.

Apart from a goalkeeper, I think fair to say that central defenders are the ones least impacted by matches in quick succession. So I am very confident that Schar will play three games in this six day stretch.

However, I think that whilst Lewis Hall has been outstanding in these recent matches, maybe Eddie Howe had him especially in mind when saying about the demands of playing games in such quick succession. So I think Hall will be looked after, with Burn coming into the middle and Kelly switching to left-back, as happened when BDB replaced Hall on Wednesday.

No disrespect but I think some Newcastle fans get a little bit carried away with squad players based on just the one performance and/or match result.

Emil Krafth is a good back up and did well against Chelsea’s second eleven but I don’t think any way Eddie Howe keeps him in ahead of Tino today.

Whist Krafth did well overall, Mudryk in the second half started sprinting past him a number of times but we got lucky, as the Chelsea waster’s final ball/cutback didn’t match his take ons of Krafth. Eddie Howe showed his quality and seeing this problem rapidly developing, he switched Joelinton and Gordon, once big Joe came to help out Krafth, Mudryk didn’t fancy it any longer and that threat disappeared!

So, Tino will come in for Krafth and is ideal, especially if Martinelli is playing, in terms of matching his pace.

I think Joelinton will make it three starts this week. He is vital in this kind of game today and showed how good he is, when on Wednesday Eddie Howe switched him a number of times to different roles and the Brazil international excelled in all of them.

Speaking of Brazilian midfielders, I think Bruno comes in for sure. He was really good when he came on to help see out the game and after starting both Chelsea matches, I reckon Tonali will drop to the bench.

Longstaff was good in the cup match and will be another easy Eddie Howe choice, as the Head Coach factors in the need for legs against this Arsenal side.

I would love to think both Willock and Isak could/would start today but I think that won’t be the case, with Eddie Howe looking after them.

Isak another player I am guessing Howe was especially thinking of with his three games in six days comments, whilst seeing Willock back to somewhere near his best on Wednesday, will I believe see Eddie Howe have his head rule his heart, not trying to get two starts from the former Arsenal player just three days apart.

My guess is that Anthony Gordon will play through the middle, with that allowing Barnes to come in on the left, with then Almiron also coming in and asked to do a job on the right.

Anyway, my take on all of this, my best guesstimate of the Newcastle team v Arsenal is:

Pope, Livramento, Schar, Burn, Kelly, Joelinton, Bruno, Longstaff, Barnes, Gordon, Almiron

So that would make it five changes from the Chelsea match on Wednesday night.

Livramento, Burn, Bruno, Barnes and Almiron coming in.

Krafth, Hall, Tonali, Isak and Willock dropping out.

That would of course hopefully mean a very strong bench.

So say if NUFC get to the hour mark or so and still level, or even ahead…

Having the likes of Isak, Hall, Willock and Tonali to come on, could be massive.

Newcastle United upcoming matches confirmed to end of January 2025:

Saturday 2 November – Newcastle v Arsenal (12.30pm) TNT Sports

Sunday 10 November – Forest v Newcastle (2pm) Sky Sports

Monday 25 November – Newcastle v West Ham (8pm) Sky Sports