· 16 August 2025, 11:23
**Newcastle United and Aston Villa get their Premier League season underway at 12:30pm at Villa Park, live on TNT Sports.**
With an hour to go until kick-off, the team news has been announced and there are some new names in Newcastle's squad for the first game of the new campaign.
Newcastle will be in their green away kit, which we hope is more lucky than the last green kit we wore.
Anthony Elanga makes his competitive debut from the start for Newcastle, while Aaron Ramsdale, Malick Thiaw and Park Seung-soo have spots on the bench.
So close
Dan Burn starts ahead of Sven Botman for Newcastle
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Eddie Howe opted for Dan Burn over Sven Botman, but other than that, our prediction was spot on.
We assume there are still some concerns about Botman's fitness after he picked up that knock in pre-season. We have no issue with Dan Burn starting, though, as we said in our lineup prediction, it stung leaving him out of the lineup after last season.
It's a decent-looking side for Newcastle given the issues up front, but with Harvey Barnes and Elanga either side of Anthony Gordon, there is a chance of goals.
Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins start for Aston Villa
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Aston Villa have gone as strong as they can. Morgan Rogers starts with Ollie Watkins up front and John McGinn leading from the middle of the park.
We wonder if there'll be any kind of appearance from Jacob Ramsey as he finalises his move from Villa to Newcastle.
It should be a good match, but we'd be lying if we said we were confident. Regardless, though, it's great to be back.
HOWAY EDDIE HOWE'S WHO NEEDS STRIKERS ANYWAY MAGS!