Newcastle United welcome Manchester City to St James’ Park on Sunday, as the two best defences in the Premier League collide.
Neither side has conceded a goal in the opening two games of the season, with Nick Pope and Ederson keeping back to back clean sheets.
Something may have to give here, and Eddie Howe will be keen to improve his record against Pep Guardiola. He lost both games against City last season by an aggregate of 9-0.
This will be a real test for Newcastle, and with that in mind here is our predicted lineup vs Man City
Matt Targett on the bench vs Man City
Matt Targett missed last weekend’s draw with Brighton, and Howe will make a late call over the £15million man.
However, we expect Dan Burn to continue at left-back regardless. Targett wasn’t pictured in any training pictures during the week, so therefore might not be as tactically prepared as his teammates.
If Targett was fit, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Howe revert to a back five. But given the fact they haven’t been able to work on that shape with Targett all week, we anticipate no changes in defence.
That means Sven Botman makes his first competitive start at St James’ Park. He will have the difficult task of keeping Erling Haaland at bay.
Newcastle midfield must step up
Newcastle’s midfield didn’t deliver against Brighton. We were overran, struggling to cope in the baking heat.
St James’ Park will be much cooler on Sunday, but the opposition will be even better. Joe Willock, Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes will therefore need to up their game.
Howe might be tempted to bring in Sean Longstaff, but he severely struggled on his last appearance against Manchester City.
All eyes on Miguel Almiron and Jack Grealish
We don’t anticipate any changes in attack either, although Ryan Fraser will hopefully return to the bench.
That means that Miguel Almiron will start on the right, and possibly come up against his nemesis Jack Grealish. The Man City attacker was rather unpleasant towards Miggy at the end of last season, and will be targeted by the Toon fans who haven’t forgot what he said.
As for Almiron, he will hope to put in a big performance to shut Grealish up.
Predicted starting XI vs Man City: Pope; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Willock, Bruno, Joelinton; Almiron, Saint-Maximin, Wilson.
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