Mick Quinn made the case for Christian Atsu to play on the left wing against Chelsea in his column for the Chronicle.
With Kenedy ineligible to play against his parent club, it will likely be a straight fight between the 26-year-old and his teammate Jacob Murphy.
When I polled fans about who they would like to replace the Brazilian in the starting line up for Sunday, a small majority agreed with Quinn that Atsu was the right choice:
Not having Kenedy in the side against the Blues will definitely make our team weaker, even if the winger didn’t have the best of games against Cardiff last time out.
Neither Murphy nor Atsu offer the type of threat our no.15 poses, but with Maurizio Sarri’s side defence looking pretty vulnerable on the counter-attack, we should create some chances at St James’ Park.
The question will be whether we can be clinical in front of goal. With that in mind, I’m hoping that Rafa opts for Salomon Rondon ahead of Joselu for the weekend.