The teams news is in at St James’ Park, where Newcastle United take on Leicester City in today’s 3pm kick off.
Here’s how the two sides line up as Eddie Howe’s Mags face Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s Foxes:
Newcastle XI: Dubravka – Livramento, Schar, Burn, Hall – Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton – Murphy, Isak, Gordon.
SUBS: Vlachodimos, Barnes, Willock, Osula, Kelly, Targett, Almiron, Longstaff, Trippier.
Leicester XI: Hermansen, Justin, Coady, Vestergaard, Kristiansen, Choudhury, Skipp, McAteer, El Khannouss, Mavididi, Vardy
SUBS: B: Ward, Faes, Okoli, Thomas, De Cordova-Reid, Buonanotte, Cartwright, Ayew, Daka.
Howe has made three changes from last Saturday’s 4-2 defeat at Brentford, seeing Gordon, Tonali and Dubravka replace Barnes, Longstaff and Pope.
Willock is back in the squad, but Pope is out for a month after suffering a knee injury and there’s no Callum Wilson after his hamstring straight ruled him out for the next eight weeks.
For Leicester, they are without first-choice midfielders Ndidi and Soumare; a blow for the visitors after both started in their recent 2-2 draw with Brighton and 3-1 win over West Ham.
With no wins in our last four league games (P4, W0, D2, L2), we’re down in 12th place and in desperate need of a win.
We’ve been consistently inconsistent all season but we must find form over the next seven days, with today’s game followed by Wednesday’s cup quarter-final at home to Brentford and a trip to Ipswich next Saturday.
Two newly promoted teams in the league and a Brentford side struggling away from home represents a huge chance to build momentum and keep our cup hopes alive before Christmas.
Howay the lads!