This is absolutely huge. Our biggest game of the 2024/25 league season and one that will more than likely play a vital role in our bid for Champions League football.
Fourth-place Newcastle welcome fifth-place Chelsea to St James’ Park in Sunday’s early kick-off, with the two sides tied on points (and level on goal difference) with Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa also on our heels with three games to go.
As of Saturday morning, this is the current Premier League table and who each of our rivals play this weekend:
* 3\. Man City – 64pts (+24)
* 4\. Newcastle – 63pts (+21)
* 5\. Chelsea – 63pts (+21)
* 6\. Nottingham Forest – 61pts (+12)
* 7\. Aston Villa – 60pts (+6)
Man City play Southampton at St. Mary’s at 3pm today before Aston Villa travel to Bournemouth at 5.30pm, then comes our meeting with Chelsea at 12pm tomorrow followed by Nottingham Forest hosting Leicester immediately after at 2.15pm.
With three weekends of football remaining, it’s crunch time in the race for Champions League qualification and a Chelsea side who looked very beatable a few weeks ago suddenly arrive with three wins in a row; one of which was a confidence-boosting 3-1 win over Liverpool.
But, for all the talk around Chelsea’s mini-resurgence, we know how good this Eddie Howe side has been in important May fixtures at St James’ Park over the past three seasons. I just hope the 12pm kick-off doesn’t impact the atmosphere too much and we can collectively step up in a genuine six-pointer before next Sunday’s trip to Arsenal.
Howe’s pre-match comments
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**On home advantage** – “Our home form has been good, we have a great environment to play in, we need the crowd with us, it is imperative. We know they will be there for us, and we have to perform for them. It is the kind of game that we need to rise to the occasion.”
**On early team news** – “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.”
**On Joelinton** – “I saw Joe yesterday, he had come back from treatment in Brazil. I think he is feeling pretty good, whether we see him before the end of the season, we’ll see.”
**On Chelsea test** – “We expect them to revert to their last league side, they performed very well against Liverpool, they have a lot of attacking players back in form so it should be a good game. We have played Chelsea twice this season – we know their qualities. They have a lot of quality players; they have found consistency in their league side.”
Team news
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Joelinton is ‘feeling pretty good’ after returning from Brazil and a trip to Barcelona for an injection, but it’s not clear if we will play again over our final three games. Personally, I think he just might!
Sven Botman is ‘feeling confident in his body again’ and both Fabian Schar and Kieran Trippier are ‘doing pretty good’ after the pair came off late in last Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Brighton.
Jamaal Lascelles has been back in training this week, but Lewis Hall (foot) and Matt Targett (hamstring) won’t play again this season.
Chelsea have Romeo Lavia back which could see Moises Caicedo start in an inverted right-back role again. Wesley Fofana remains out, with Christopher Nkunku also likely to be sidelined again.
Predicted line-up
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**(4-3-3):** Pope – Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento – Guimaraes, Tonali, Willock – Murphy, Isak, Gordon.
I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if Joelinton is back in the squad for this – I just have a feeling he’ll be telling everyone he’s ready to play – but I think we’ll see another start for Joe Willock.
He looked like a man struggling for confidence at Brighton, but probably needs a run of games to find his rhythm. The problem is, our season has three games left to run and we need him to deliver now, so must see his running power in both directions and improved quality and decision-making in and around the final third in an area of the pitch Joelinton often dominates.
Moving to the left wing, I think Anthony Gordon comes back into the side. Harvey Barnes has done very little wrong, but Gordon’s pressing is superior to help set the tone and I thought his cameo at Brighton offered that bit of urgency we were lacking for much of the afternoon.
Match prediction
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A few weeks ago I felt really confident we’d beat Chelsea, but they’ve built momentum lately, are a much better side with Romeo Lavia balancing their midfield and may have Cole Palmer back at it this weekend after he ended his goal drought in a man of the match display last weekend.
However, I am still backing us to get the job done. Since the cup final, we’ve won four home games in a row by an aggregate score of 14-2 and Howe has shown his ability to get it right in the big games this season, highlighted by his tactical masterclass at Wembley that the player’s delivered almost perfectly.
Joelinton’s likely absence is a concern against a Chelsea side full of pace and power, but will they have the heart to match us when the going gets tough? I’m not so sure!
**Prediction:** Newcastle 2-1 Chelsea
Howay the lads!