Barely even a week into the new Premier League season, and St James’ Park is gearing up for perhaps the most anticipated game of the entire campaign.
Disregarding the Alexander Isak saga for just a second, we traded wins with the Champions last season in league and cup, while our 3-3 draw at home was arguably one of the games of 2024/25.
So if Monday night’s game comes even remotely close to the lofty expectations fans and neutrals have for it, we could be in for a classic under the lights.
Reds boss Arne Slot is a man who is taking the fixture very seriously as well, and he anticipates a very tough game ahead for his Liverpool side against what he calls “one of the best teams in the league.”
Arne Slot expects a huge test and high-intensity affair when his Liverpool side travels to Tyneside on Monday, similar to the games at St James’ Park and Wembley last season.
The Dutchman made the bold claim that we are “one of the best teams in the league” under Eddie Howe and one of the toughest teams to play away from home, admitting that our “intensity levels” were too much for his Liverpool side in two out of three of our meetings las term.
Speaking in his press conference on Thursday, he said: “Nothing to do with anything that’s in the media a lot, but I think if you do go to Newcastle, you know what to expect.”
“We’ve played them three times last season, and twice their intensity levels were above ours. So in the away game, especially first 60 minutes, they were so so so intense. They were fully deserved of the lead.”
“And in the League Cup final, they were more intense than us as well. So I don’t think they need anything to add for them being intense if they play at St James’ Park.”
Liverpool boast the better XI in many areas, but we are more than a match in midfield, where you can back the ever-reliable trio of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton to bring a mixture of physicality, energy and quality, as Slot alludes to:
“So yeah, apart from the intensity, it’s a very good team. They have also a team that can make it a ‘fight’, if you want to call it like this, they have players for this. They have players that are so comfortable on the ball.”
“One of the best teams in the league and one of the most difficult away games that you can have in a season, especially as you say, they’re under the lights.”
💬 “St. James’ Park, isn’t it?”
😬 Arne Slot needed reminding of where he’s going on Monday night..
👏 But that aside, he was very complimentary about Newcastle United#NUFC | #LFC pic.twitter.com/dsQeqpMubU
— The Chronicle (@ChronicleNUFC) August 21, 2025
As much as we can expect to have the raucous Toon faithful behind us, we are still very much the underdogs against Liverpool on Monday night.
We’re still without a proven striker up top, so Anthony Gordon is likely to deputise once again up top, this time against the powerful duo of Virgil Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate.
However, the visitors looked shaky in their opening weekend clash against Bournemouth, who were clinical on the counter, whilst the spine of Liverpool in particular looked very weak and still adjusting to Florian Wirtz’s addition in midfield.
But the big battle could involve whoever we start down the left – Gordon or Barnes – against the right-bac Slot chooses in Jeremie Frimpong (hamstring) absence, with Conor Bradley or Joe Gomez in contention to take his place.
A similar performance to what we pulled off against Aston Villa last Saturday, just ever so slightly more clinical in front of net, and there’s no excuse for why we can’t win this game.