Pep Guardiola handed Erling Haaland a rest on Tuesday night for the Carabao Cup tie win over Watford. The Man City boss also had the luxury of giving Ederson, Ruben Dias, Mateo Kovacic, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Joško Gvardiol and Manu Akanji a breather as his side negotiated the Hornets in a 2-1 win. Haaland has 10 goals to his name and has been primed to face the Magpies for the Saturday lunchtime kick off.
Having rested his side against Watford, his team sheet on Saturday will be a frightening statement in itself, with or without injured star Rodri, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season. Eddie Howe goes into the game with a crowd clamour for Sandro Tonali to start the clash after only making a cameo appearance against Fulham in the 3-1 loss. It was a defeat that cost Newcastle top spot in the table after City only drew with Arsenal.
Howe was not fully impressed by Tonali's cameo appearance but he may have no choice but to start him after Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes also failed to show up at Craven Cottage with their worst displays of the season. Whether Sean Longstaff gets a chance of an early return remains to be seen. In trying to find a reason why Newcastle were so poor on Saturday against the Cottagers, Howe felt the lack of legs across the pitch cost his team dear.
Howe said: "It has been a hallmark strength that has got us results - our ability to run. And continue running for the whole game. "It is not quite there at the moment.
Across the team.