Predicted Newcastle team v Chelsea | OneFootball

Looking at the Newcastle team v Chelsea.

The NUFC players hoping to make it eight wins (and one draw, one defeat) from ten games.

Premier League victories over Ipswich, West Ham, Brentford, Leicester, Man U and Palace, plus of course in the middle of that, the magnificent performance and triumph at Wembley against Liverpool.

United having only that one defeat at Villa in these past two and a half months, before that 1-1 at Brighton last weekend, the first Newcastle United drawn match in over five months.

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

On Friday morning, Eddie Howe giving an injury and availability update:

“We have a couple of players we are assessing and we will see how they are this weekend, other than that we have trained well all week.”

Eddie Howe on Anthony Gordon, who is targeting a first Premier League start since February:

“He’s pushing. This is his best week physically.  He had an issue he picked up with England and it’s taken him a while to get back to full fitness. He did well when he came on against Brighton and he adds a different dimension to our game, directness and running.”

Eddie Howe on Joelinton:

“I saw Joe yesterday for the first time in a while because he had been away getting treatment. He returned to Brazil briefly but he has been back in Barcelona for another injection and I think he is feeling pretty good. Whether we see him before the end of the season though, I’m not sure.”

Eddie Howe on Sven Botman:

After having got on the pitch as a sub against both Ipswich and Brighton in the last two matches, Eddie Howe on Friday morning stated that the Dutch defender is “close” to starting.

Eddie Howe on Fabian Schar:

The Head Coach said that the Swiss defender has been “doing pretty good” after worries when he limped off towards the end of the Brighton match.

Eddie Howe on Kieran Trippier:

Very similar positive comments from Eddie Howe on the right-back who was also subbed off late on last weekend.

So as things appear to stand, only Joelinton, Matt Targett, Lewis Hall and Jamaal Lascelles will be definitely unavailable for this Chelsea match today.

So where does that leave us…

My predicted Newcastle team v Chelsea:

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Tonali, Bruno, Willock, Gordon, Isak, Murphy

Just the one change from the starting eleven that got the 1-1 draw at Brighton.

My one predicted change is Anthony Gordon in for Harvey Barnes.

It is the ongoing conundrum of, for many Newcastle fans, wanting Gordon back in the team, whilst also wanting Barnes to remain. Meanwhile, Jacob Murphy has also been doing so well also, only to put in a poor performance at Brighton. Eddie Howe’s reaction to that, was to bring on Anthony Gordon for Murphy, with Barnes shifting to the right and United looked far more of a threat suddenly on both sides of the pitch.

However, that was just one game.

I am tempted to predict a Gordon left and Barnes right, but my head tells me that Eddie Howe won’t change his set up suddenly that has served him so well these past couple of months, in terms of taking Murphy out at this key stage.

Instead, I do think that Eddie Howe will bring in Anthony Gordon on the left, he looked really sharp when coming off the bench at Brighton and for such a huge game as this Chelsea one, I think you can’t leave Gordon out for sure. When fully fit (which he finally appears to be now after that injury with England) he is only behind Alexander Isak as United’s biggest attacking threats.

I also think that Eddie Howe likes the flexibility of having Harvey Barnes to call on from the bench if needed. Against a tiring team, Barnes is the kind of player who can pose a serious goal threat off the bench, whereas Murphy is more of a player you look to put a shift in, rather than as a game-changer off the bench.

Other than that, so long as all of last Sunday’s team are available, I don’t see any other changes.

A big plus to have Sven Botman back available but I can’t see Eddie Howe changing the Schar and Burn combination today, though maybe we could see Botman involved from the start next Sunday at Arsenal. Eddie Howe played all three central defenders in the 2-0 home cup win over Arsenal and it worked well that night.

As seems the norm, a number of Newcastle fans overly negative about Joe Willock. Joelinton is of course a massive miss but Willock has done ok recently and was decent at Brighton, his running with the ball can be a big asset. Newcastle have won all three home matches against Chelsea under Eddie Howe and whilst Joe Willock was missing due to injury in the 4-1 last season, he was excellent and scoring a great winning goal in that big 1-0 Premier League win immediately before the break for the Qatar World Cup, then in the 2-0 League Cup victory against Chelsea in October, Willock also played well and was a big reason for that win. With Newcastle sure to want to press Chelsea high up the pitch today, the likes of Willock and Gordon can play a big part in that.