**Newcastle travel to Villa Park on Saturday for the early kick-off in the opening weekend of the 25/26 Premier League season.**
[Newcastle will have to deal with the absence of their talisman Alexander Isak](https://hayters.com/alexander-isak-tells-newcastle-he-wants-to-explore-move-away/), while Aston Villa are without goalkeeper Emi Martinez due to a red card on the final day of last season.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the game…
**Kick-off time**
12:30 UK time
**How to watch in the UK**
Live on TNT sports 1
Streaming on Discovery+
**Injuries and suspensions**
Aston Villa: Emiliano Martinez (suspended), Ross Barkley (out), Andres Garcia (out)
Newcastle: Alexander Isak (Suspended), Joe Willock (out)
**Predicted line-ups**
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Bizot; Cash, Konsa, Pau, Maatsen; Kamara, Tielemans, Mcginn; Malen, Rogers, Watkins
Newcastle (4-3-3): Pope; Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento; Tonali, Guimaraes, Joelinton; Murphy, Barnes, Gordon
**What’s been said?**
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery hopes to be challenging for Europe this season.
“We are not contenders to be in the top seven, but hopefully we can show our capacity to fight to be in those positions. We have to be competitive with our players and our capacity.”
Alexander Isak has been linked with a move away from Newcastle this season but his manager Eddie Howe is only focused on the game ahead.
“We have had some really good games against them, both positive and negative and the negative ones you learn from. We are going to be ready for a really tough game.
“All my focus is on Aston Villa tomorrow. Isak’s situation has been clear for a while and that will continue to be thecase.”