Newcastle United will host Chelsea in their Carabao Cup clash at St James’ Park this evening, and Eddie Howe will be hoping his team can progress comfortably.
The Magpies will return to action tonight under the lights on Tyneside, hosting their most recent Premier League opponents and hoping for a different outcome from their previous result.
Newcastle suffered their third defeat of the season when they travelled to Stamford Bridge on Sunday, which became their fifth consecutive game without a win leaving them 12th in the league table.
There will be no room for second chances in the Carabao Cup tie and Eddie Howe will be feeling the pressure mounting on him due to recent performances, so nothing short of a victory will be satisfactory for the St James’ Park faithful.
In terms of injuries, Jamaal Lascelles, Sven Botman, Callum Wilson, Martin Dubravka and Kieran Trippier are all ruled out for the clash as expected, but a late decision on Anthony Gordon will be the most crucial ahead of not only Chelsea but also Arsenal at the weekend.
The Newcastle boss spoke out in his pre-match press conference to give a more detailed insight into Gordon’s situation after he was missing from the squad at the weekend:
“He has been for a scan, we’re hopeful the injury isn’t serious, we didn’t think it was when he initially did it. Let’s see how he is today.”
“It was in training, I think it was Friday, but it didn’t become necessarily obvious to us until Saturday.”
“Nothing serious, it’s one of those things you get from time to time that players can play with or not play with. He felt it was too much for him on Sunday to play.”
“There is (a chance he could feature) but we have to make the right decision, we have Arsenal coming up very quickly. It’s about making sure we do no further damage to him.”
How could Newcastle line up against Chelsea?
We predict that Howe will maintain a pretty full strength side with only two changes to the team that lost to Chelsea on Sunday, maintaining his classic 4-3-3 formation.
The first change we expect to see is in the defensive set-up with Lloyd Kelly being offered another opportunity to make his mark in the centre-back partnership alongside Fabian Schar.
The 26-year-old is likely to replace Dan Burn, who we expect to still feature but in the left-back role instead while Lewis Hall is rested for the weekend.
The second change we predict comes in the centre of the pitch, with Sean Longstaff replacing Sandro Tonali on the right side of the midfield three while captain Bruno Guimaraes and powerhouse Joelinton retain their spots in the starting eleven.
The 46-year-old manager will be mindful that a difficult clash at home against Arsenal lies ahead in the Premier League early kick off on Saturday, so rotating a few fringe players into key roles tonight will not only keep those players happy but allow rest periods for players who will be influential in the efforts to defuse Arsenal’s threat at the weekend.
It would not be surprising to see a lot of second half substitutions tonight as Howe attempts to manage minutes without throwing the game into disrepair, so there will be a lot of pressure to make the right decisions at the right time in this particular fixture.
