· 17 May 2025, 16:30
**Eddie Howe has a bit of a selection dilemma ahead of him on Sunday as Newcastle United travel to Arsenal in the 4:30pm kick-off live on Sky Sports.**
Newcastle look set to be without Sven Botman, Kieran Trippier and Joelinton, while Joe Willock has trained this week, we're not sure he'll be ready for a place in the starting lineup, or, let's be honest, whether we want him in the starting lineup.
Eddie Howe tried something a bit different against Chelsea last week, playing three centre-backs and starting both Harvey Barnes and Anthony Gordon, but given Trippier and Botman's inevitable absences, he won't have the manpower to repeat that same tactic.
However, there is a variation that could work, and that's what we've gone for this week. Although this one is veering more towards hope than expectation, so we are prepared to be very wrong this week.
Have we lost our minds?
### Goalkeeper
**Nick Pope** \- Naturally/
### Defenders
**Emil Krafth** - With Kieran Trippier out, we expect Howe will keep Tino Livramento on the left and put Emil on the right.
**Fabian Schar** - The centre-back pairing will see us out for the rest of the season all being well.
**Dan Burn** - Got a sneaking feeling that BDB is going to get himself on the scoresheet on Sunday. Don't know why.
**Tino Livramento** - Could start on the right over Krafth with Matt Targett starting on the left, but doubtful.
### Midfielders
**Bruno Guimaraes (c) -** Captain Bruno will make up one half of a two-man midfield, a double pivot if you will.
**Sandro Tonali** - This feels like a Sandro Tonali type of game. Top opposition. High stakes. Pure Sandro.
### Forwards
**Anthony Gordon** - We're going wild here and deploying AG10 as a second striker to provide more support to Alexander Isak who has looked lost lately.
**Jacob Murphy** - Murphy and Isak need to reignite that spark that served them so well at the turn of the year.
**Alexander Isak** - As mentioned, Isak looks off the pace lately, hopefully, this will be the game he turns it around.
**Harvey Barnes** - When you can't drop Barnes for Gordon, you find a way to play both. So we did. But will Eddie Howe?
We did toy with playing the usual 4-3-3 with Lewis Miley in the middle, but nothing Eddie Howe has done lately has suggested that Miley will get the nod, and we're just hoping more than anything that Willock will have to make do with a spot on the bench, he just hasn't done enough to justify his place in the XI for us.
Like we've said, though, we expect to be wrong with this one, but it doesn't hurt to put it out there into the universe.