It’s been a brilliant few weeks for Newcastle United, who followed recent wins over Leicester, Brentford and Ipswich with an emphatic 3-0 win over Aston Villa yesterday.

Next up in our final game of 2024 is a trip to Old Trafford, where we’ll face a struggling Man Utd side who sit 14th after last night’s 2-0 defeat away to relegation-threatened Wolves.

Not only are the Red Devils in bad form, losing four of their last five league games, they lost TWO key players to suspension last night just before our trip to Manchester.

Man Utd blow is huge boost for Toon

Man Utd will be without Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte for Monday’s game following a damaging night at Molineux for Ruben Amorim’s side.

Fernandes is facing a two-game ban after his red card (his second of the league season) at Wolves last night. He’s been involved in 50% of Man Utd’s Premier League goals this season, but will be in the stands at Old Trafford when we arrive next week.

As for Ugarte, his booking at Wolves was his fifth of the campaign, meaning he too will be forced to sit this one out as he faces a one-game suspension.

Schar and Tonali at risk

Both on four yellows for the season, Fabian Schar and Sandro Tonali are one booking away from a one-match ban and would miss our trip to Spurs on Saturday 4th January should they receive at caution on Monday.

However, our 8pm kick-off at Old Trafford is the 19th game of the campaign and, once over, marks the cut-off point for the five-yellow rule that Joelinton fell victim to before missing our 4-0 win at Ipswich.

After Monday, the suspension system changes slightly and punishes those who pick up 10 yellow cards before the 33rd game of the campaign with a two-match ban.