Newcastle United return to Premier League action this weekend, taking on Crystal Palace in Sunday’s 2pm kick off at Selhurst Park.
It will be three weeks since the Magpies were last in action by the time kick-off comes around, and it wasn’t a pleasant three weeks either, with international football taking over following that disastrous derby defeat.
Hopefully, Eddie Howe has had enough time on the training pitch with his players to instil some belief and potentially some new ideas ahead of the final seven games of the season.
Everyone is going to have to play a part in the run-in, but Joelinton is running a huge risk going into the game against Palace.
The Brazilian is currently on nine yellow cards for the season. If the 29-year-old picks up a booking in Sunday’s game, he will be given a two-match suspension and miss upcoming games against Bournemouth and Arsenal.
We know how much Joelinton loves a meaty challenge, and he tends to follow those up with a bit of afters, too, so he’s really at a high risk of this happening.
However, if he were to avoid a booking in this game, he would find himself with plenty of breathing room in the following game against Bournemouth.
The game against Crystal Palace is the last game where the threshold is 10 yellow cards; after that, it resets to 15 cards before picking up a two-game suspension, which means that Joelinton could go card crazy in the run-in.
We’re sure Eddie Howe will be very aware of the precarious situation his battling midfielder is in and will be cautious on Sunday. If Joey starts to get heated, it may be wise to just take him out of the game, especially if Bruno Guimaraes and Lewis Miley are back fit.
He’s too important a player to leave out of the game entirely, but some allowances need to be made. After all, we’d rather have a half-angry Joelinton for one game than no Joelinton for two.
If big Joe were to pick up a card in each game after Palace, he’d hit that threshold and would start next season with a two-game ban, although the biggest hurdle will be getting through Sunday as we head into a run in that will decide our European fate.