Arsenal v Newcastle Preview - Team News & Predicted Line-Ups
Moussa Sissoko expected to make his 100th appearance for Newcastle.
If there's one thing we can gleam from Steve McClaren inexplicably fielding the same 11 on Monday just two days after a gruelling 90 minutes against Everton, it's that he doesn't believe he has an actual squad of players at Newcastle United he can trust. The game after the boxing day fixtures is historically the match where you would usually rotate but it saw the likes of Florian Thauvin, Siem De Jong, Cheick Tiote and Yoan Gouffran stationary on the bench at the first whistle, and you just have to wonder if McClaren has given up on anyone outside his first 11-13 men. Against Arsenal today, the safe bet would once again be on Newcastle being unchanged though McClaren is forced into one move with a hamstring injury seeing Vurnon Anita sidelined, with Tiote expected to be his replacement. Rob Elliott is also a huge doubt after being sent home for training on Wednesday with the stomach bug that saw him pull out late from Monday's game at West Brom. Karl Darlow is expected to subsidise once again. The only other somewhat plausible switch you might expect McClaren to make would be swapping De Jong for Mitrovic who has looked tied and ineffective in his last few games but the Magpies boss still doesn't fully understand how best to use the classy Dutchman and likely doesn't fancy him as an out and out forward.