· December 25 2024, 10:00
**Newcastle United host Aston Villa at St James' Park in the Boxing Day Premier League fixture with a 3pm kick-off live on Amazon Prime Video.**
Both sides are coming into this one off the back of impressive wins with Newcastle blowing Ipswich out of the water with a 4-0 win while Aston Villa were the latest side to claim the scalp of whatever that is pretending to be Manchester City.
Alexander Isak should be pretty fired up for this one after snatching three goals last time out, similarly, we're hoping Jacob Murphy can continue his purple patch of form.
We don't see Eddie Howe making any drastic changes to the formula here, in fact, we just expect Joelinton to return to the fold after his suspension. He picked up a couple of knocks to the face in the win over Brentford, but we don't see those stopping the Brazilian Beast.
Welcome back, J7
### Goalkeeper
**Martin Dubravka -** There's no sign of a return to action for Nick Pope so Martin Dubravka will continue between the sticks.
### Defenders
**Tino Livramento** \- Tino is still doing the business at right-back, there's no reason at all to consider dropping him.
**Fabian Schar** - Naturally.
**Dan Burn** - Robbed of a goal on Saturday but still had that big beaming smile.
**Lewis Hall** - The youngster continues to impress at left-back. Not long before we see if Thomas Tuchel is going to keep him in the England setup.
### Midfielders
**Bruno Guimaraes** - That pass on Saturday though. THAT PASS! Bruno is thriving in his new role with Sandro Tonali backing him up.
**Sandro Tonali** - I think we can safely erase any doubts about Tonali now. Sitting in that number six role he's become indispensable.
**Joelinton** - Stitches smitches. Joelinton will be in the starting XI.
Forwards
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**Jacob Murphy** \- With the form he's in lately he's probably the first name on the team sheet.
**Alexander Isak** - The goal machine is back and with Man City and Erling Haaland misfiring, it's time to start catching up, although he's still five off Mo Salah at the top.
**Anthony Gordon** - Didn't have his best game against Ipswich but you can never write him off.
Harvey Barnes might be thinking it's his turn to shine after Gordon's rare off day, but we expect he'll be kept in reserve for a late impact.
Eddie Howe will still have options on the bench, in fact, better options than Saturday with Joe Willock there too.