Merry Christmas to all celebrating. We hope you all have a lovely day!
Away from the gift-giving, family time and all the festive trimmings, Newcastle are back in action on Boxing Day as we travel to Old Trafford in Friday’s 8pm kick-off.
A rare gap between games and one Eddie Howe probably welcomed after such a hectic schedule, allowing us to recover and reflect on the good and bad from last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea.
In many ways, Eddie Howe and the player delivered what could and should have been a comfortable home win and massive three points against a ‘big six’ rival, with Woltemade scoring twice, Gordon electric, Hall and Miley superb at full-back and our first half display worthy of three or four goals.
However, two second half slips (quite literally from Thiaw), a VAR howler and some missed chances meant we dropped points again, adding to the importance of our Boxing Day clash with Man Utd as we look to get back into the top half and boost our hopes of getting back into the top five picture.
We are not far off – win at Man Utd and we’ll be level with them, three behind Chelsea and above Crystal Palace – but we must get moving soon and see our away form improve, with our last three away trips summing up our inconsistencies thanks to a stinker at Sunderland, mixed bag at Bayer Leverkusen and brilliant 4-1 win at Everton.
Team news
Based on Howe’s press conference on Tuesday morning, it sounds like Tino Livramento (knee) could be back relatively soon, with Sven Botman (back) also getting ‘closer’, but this one will come too soon.
Nick Pope (groin) has a chance of returning once again and Joelinton (groin) may now be in a position to feature after a number of unused substitute ‘appearances’, but we will definitely be without Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier, Emil Krafth, Jamaal Lascelles and Will Osula.
For Man Utd, captain and key man Bruno Fernandes is out with a hamstring issue along with Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui (all at AFCON), while Kobbie Mainoo, Matthijs De Ligt and Harry Maguire will also be missing.
Predicted XI
(4-3-3): Ramsdale – Miley, Thiaw, Schar, Hall – Bruno, Tonali, Ramsey – Murphy, Woltemade, Gordon.
Put very simply, I think we’ll see the same side who started in last Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea.
That 11 were outstanding in the first 45, blowing away the Blues in every department, and there has been a six-day gap between that match and our trip to Old Trafford.
So, I think Howe will trust the same side to go again, knowing there is Wissa, Barnes, Elanga, Joelinton and Willokc in reserve the changes things in the second half if needed.
Match prediction
The very definition of patchy and unpredictable would be this Newcastle side over 2025/26 and Amorim’s Man Utd, who often score goals but rarely string together a consistent run of good results despite signs of improvements.
A draw feels very possible, but I’m edging towards a big away win for Howe’s Mags. We’ve beaten Man Utd in five of our last six meetings, I liked what I saw from much of last Saturday’s game (despite the dropped points) and I think this could be the ideal time to play them with Fernandes and Mbeumo missing.
Prediction: Man Utd 1-2 Newcastle
Howay the lads!
Merry Christmas everyone 🎄, lets hope we get a boxing day treat.
kimtoon(Quote)
Second that thought Kimtoon.
Joseph(Quote)
Merry Christmas Olly! Thanks for all the excellent articles and keeping the site going! It means more than you’ll know!
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Thank you! Really appreciate that.
Merry Christmas to all our readers; let’s hope for 3pts tonight to top it off!
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Yep, great work Olly much appreciated .
kimtoon(Quote)
No Elanga tonight, not on the bench either. Something clearly up with him. Young Sam Alabi on the bench. So an unchanged side. I hope the team that smashed Everton away are the ones that turn up tonight. We need wins, not draws.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
So the Sky pundits for game are Scouser Carragher and Manure Roy Keane! No bias there then 🙄🙄🤬
Gilly Toon(Quote)
And the ref is from Manchester… no bias there either then! 🙄🤷🏻♂️🤬🤬
Gilly Toon(Quote)
HWTL
kimtoon(Quote)
And just when we looked to be getting a foothold
ffs
kimtoon(Quote)
WTF is this cr..ap? Away day sh..ite again
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Probably the booze, but struggling to pin point the specific issues in this game.
Taking into account that Manu are almost playing with 10 men (sesko is that bad) we have been poor.
Certainly Wolte is struggling and should be swapped with Wissa asap.
There has been a lot of loose passes which is killing our ability to be a threat, but beyond ‘wake up’ – there is little to he constructive about in that respect.
Gordon, like most of the season in the PL, is cutting inside way too often. He needs to run in a straight line and beat his man. Failing that, Barnes should replace him.
Howe the toon(Quote)
Agree Howe the Toon … sloppy and lethargic.
Ramsdale is not the answer for our goalie either.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Agreed Gilly. I think Pope saves that.
Howe the toon(Quote)
Need to be much livelier this half
kimtoon(Quote)
Could do with joelinton in MF need a bit of bite and wissa too up front Would swap Barnes for Gordon too.
kimtoon(Quote)
Eddie needs to change things before they get a second
kimtoon(Quote)
Again! 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
That’s a fuc..king penalty
Gilly Toon(Quote)
VAR not ruling that a pen, no surprise there, never gonna go our way
kimtoon(Quote)
I give up, it’s bias
kimtoon(Quote)
*** Gordon is so effin ****
Eddie changes now please
kimtoon(Quote)
Wissa coming on and Barnes, c’mon lads do something
kimtoon(Quote)
Man utd are total ****, we should be going at them , Why is Gordon still on the pitch ?
kimtoon(Quote)
Willock for Sandro ! why
kimtoon(Quote)
How can we not score from 20 crosses !
kimtoon(Quote)
Willock is so ****
kimtoon(Quote)
*** Gordon that’s so poor, gotta score there man
Man utd are so poor , but we cannot finish
kimtoon(Quote)
Don’t understand taking Murphy off if he was bringing Wissa on tbh, Gordon should be off
kimtoon(Quote)
We cant score for toffee
kimtoon(Quote)
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Can we please buy someone who knows how to score a fuuuuuucking goal!
Shiiiite
Gilly Toon(Quote)
All on the cups now realistically. Go all out for the domestic ones and try to go as far as we can in CL (obviously impossible to win it). League wise would say top half maybe and try to finish above the mackems is about all that’s left. Bitterly disappointing if you’d said that at the start of the season but let’s be honest, we have been awful for most of it
East Stand(Quote)
Totally agree.
That was really poor. We were playing such a bad side, we dominated without even playing well, but we never looked like scoring.
We are decent on the break but utterly toothless at breaking down a semblance of defence. Bruno is fuming
Howe the toon(Quote)
If you don’t score goals you don’t win matches. what is our set piece ‘expert’ doing. Corners are just a waste of time for us!
nutmag(Quote)
I fear for us at Burnley as well mind. I think big Nick has been great for his first season but we need pace in our system away from home. Has to be wissa away from now on, Nick at home. Or change the system but I doubt that will happen….
East Stand(Quote)
Not happy at all, we were dominant without realistically threatening . Lost count after 20 crosses that were wasted.
Gordon has been so poor all season for us apart from first half v Chelsea.
kimtoon(Quote)
Yeah I will lose my ***** if we lose that one.
kimtoon(Quote)