Merry Christmas you filthy animals! Hopefully, the fat man (not Mike Ashley) has been and left you loads of presents and your dinners were filling and laughs were had etc.
And hopefully, you’re ready for Boxing Day, which is the real day that matters as Newcastle make a trip to the King Walkers Power Crisp Stadium for a 3pm kick-off live on Prime Video.
This Premier League game is the dress rehearsal for the Carabao Cup Quarter Final due to take place on the 10th January, and also, our chance to prove to James Maddison that he’s better off at Newcastle than staying at Leicester City.
As far as how I think we’ll line up, Howe will obviously go strong. I think the team pretty much picks itself at this point.
With Allan Saint-Maximin fit again, I think we’ll see him in from the off over Jacob Murphy who has done a stellar job deputising for the Frenchman. Jonjo Shelvey could be in with a shout of the starting XI, perhaps over Joe Willock, but I think Willock will keep his place, especially given that he’s the scorer of our last Premier League goal.
Leicester are still sweating on the fitness of Maddison, so if we do see him play, he might not make the full 90 minutes which can only be good news for Newcastle as he is their key danger man. They of course still have Youri Tielemans who can cause us problems, and despite being a millionty years old, Jamie Vardy still knows where the net is.
I think we’ll have more than enough to see them off, however.
Score Prediction: Leicester 1 – 2 Newcastle