Manchester United take on Newcastle United at St James’ Park in under an hour’s time looking to strengthen our position in second place with three points.
The hosts would be in the relegation zone at kickoff should Huddersfield Town beat Bournemouth in today’s lunchtime game. They are currently is in the second half at the John Smith’s Stadium with the Terriers currently leading 2-1.
Jose Mourinho confirmed on Friday that Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Daley Blind were all unavailable for today’s trip to the North east.
Anthony Martial, Chris Smalling, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku all scored in our 4-1 thrashing of the Magpies at Old Trafford back in November.
The two lineups for today’s game are confirmed as follows:
Manchester United
David de Gea; Antonio Valencia, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Ashley Young; Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic; Alexis Sanchez, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial; Romelu Lukaku
Substitutes: Sergio Romero, Victor Lindelof, Marcos Rojo, Luke Shaw, Michael Carrick, Scott McTominay, Juan Mata
It appears Alexis Sanchez will start on the left wing for us again in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Anthony Martial on the right and Jesse Lingard in the number 10 role. Marcus Rashford’s run of playing in every game in all competitions this season comes to an end as an injury rules the 20-year-old out of today’s matchday squad.
Phil Jones returns from illness to partner Chris Smalling in the centre of defence whilst Ashley Young is recalled at left-back with Luke Shaw dropping to the bench. There are no strikers among the substitutes as Zlatan Ibrahimovic is only just back in training following a knee problem.
Newcastle United
Martin Dubravka; DeAndre Yedlin, Jamaal Lascelles, Florian Lejeune, Paul Dummett; Matt Ritchie, Jonjo Shelvey, Mohamed Diame, Kenedy; Ayoze Perez; Dwight Gayle
Substitutes: Karl Darlow, Javier Manquillo, Isaac Hayden, Mikel Merino, Christian Atsu, Jacob Murphy, Joselu
Slovakian goalkeeper Martin Dubravka makes his Premier League debut after joining on loan from Sparta Prague in January. Fellow loanee Kenedy makes his third start for Newcastle and could offer a real threat to Antonio Valencia down our right.
Ayoze Perez supports Dwight Gayle in attack but neither player or any Newcastle player for that matter have many goals to their name this season. Dirty tackling Jonjo Shelvey starts in centre midfield.
