CHELSEA return from the international break with a tasty trip up north to Newcastle – and Eddie Howe will be delighted to welcome Alexander Isak back into the fold.
Cole Palmer's stoppage-time penalty earned the Blues a point in their 4-4 thriller with Manchester City last time out.
While a Dominic Solanke double saw the Magpies suffer a shock defeat to Bournemouth.
- Kick-off time: 3pm GMT
- Live stream/TV: Not televised in the UK due to the blackout
- Newcastle XI: Pope; Trippier, Lascelles, Schar, Livramento; Joelinton, Miley, Guimaraes; Almiron, Isak, Gordon
- Chelsea XI: Sanchez; James, Silva, Badiashile, Cucurella; Ugochukwu, Fernandez; Palmer, Gallagher, Sterling; Jackson
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- By Craig Mahood
Newcastle 0-0 Chelsea
4. Chelsea come forward now and Jackson drives to the edge of the box.
He looks for Sterling instead of shooting himself and that pass is intercepted. Good start to this one.
- By Craig Mahood
Newcastle 0-0 Chelsea
3. Joelinton dispossessed on the edge of his own box by Ugochukwu but Chelsea can't make the most of it.
Newcastle go on the counter and Bruno Guimaraes dinks a delightful ball over the top for Isak but good defending sees that move snuffed out.
- By Craig Mahood
Newcastle 0-0 Chelsea
2. A couple of early attacking throw-ins for Chelsea come to nothing.
Trippier wins a free kick on halfway to stop that early push.
Interestingly, he's starting at right back here, with Livramento on the left. Many – including yours truly – thought they'd be the other way.
- By Craig Mahood
KICK OFF!
Chelsea get us under way!
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Last words
The Toon gather for a huddle and the crowd bursts into life as they break away in position.
Here we go!
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Here they come!
Englishmen Jamaal Lascelles and Reece James lead their sides out.
The Toon faithful unveil one of the biggest tifos of the season behind the goal to our left.
Simon Hooper gets the captains in for the coin toss after the handshakes.
- By Craig Mahood
Heading for the pitch
The players start to gather in the tunnel and we're set for a start in just a few minutes.
The Chelsea fans trying to make themselves heard up in clouds!
Blaydon Races blaring from the tannoy, so we must be close to a start.
- By Craig Mahood
Talking of tables…
So we've got one of the top scorers in the division and one of the top 'foulers' too.
But we can't not mention one of the top assisters in the league this season.
Only Pedro Neto (7) has more assists in the league this season than Kieran Trippier (6).
Incredible stats from the right back, though he'll need to improve his recent set pieces to add to that tally here.
- By Craig Mahood
Heating up
The players are just about finished their warm ups as we edge towards kick off.
The atmosphere really building as the supporters begin taking their seats.
- By Craig Mahood
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- By Craig Mahood
Top fouler
Conor Gallagher has just one booking to his name this season.
That might not sound too much of a story, but the Chelsea midfielder has amassed a huge 26 fouls in the Premier League so far.
That's clear at the top of the fouls table, with second place racking up 22 fouls.
Tenacious.
- By Craig Mahood
Last time out
The sides last met on the final day of last season in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Anthony Gordon's opener cancelled out by a Kieran Trippier own goal in the opening half hour.
They also met in pre-season, where that also finished 1-1.
The last encounter at St James' was a 1-0 Newcastle win last season.
- By Craig Mahood
Jackson rolling
Four goals in his last two games for Chelsea, Nicolas Jackson looks to have found his feet at last.
In fact, he's now amongst the top scorers for the season as a result.
Callum Wilson is one goal ahead of him but he's not fit enough to make the squad this afternoon.
- By Craig Mahood
Man in the middle
Simon Hooper is the referee for today’s game.
Today is Hooper’s ninth game of the season in all competitions and he’s dished out 38 yellow cards in that time.
He’s also the man who sent Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota off in that loss to Tottenham earlier this campaign – his only two reds this season.
John Brooks is the VAR man. Praying we don’t hear too much from the technology today.
- By Craig Mahood
Can't split them
The bookies are having a hard time picking out the favourites for today's game.
Newcastle JUST edge that…
Latest odds from Betfair.
- Newcastle 6/4
- Draw 9/5
- Chelsea 7/5
- By Craig Mahood
Tell a lie…
Alexander-Arnold has just equalised for Liverpool.
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How we stand
This is the state of play heading into the weekend.
Manchester City are leading Liverpool 1-0 with 12 minutes to go – but this is the table taking that result out of the equation.
Newcastle are six points off the top four – Chelsea a further four behind in 10th.
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Looking stronger
Eddie Howe will be thrilled to have Isak back in the fold.
With Gordon and Almiron in the front three, that's back to looking more like it from his point of view.
For Chelsea, the Palmer-Sterling-Jackson front three also looks to have clicked in recent weeks and they're together again here too.
Less than an hour to go now!
- By Craig Mahood
Chelsea team news
Pochettino makes two changes to the side that drew 4-4 with Man City.
Badiashile and Ugochukwu the two to come in for this one.
CHELSEA XI: Sanchez, James, Silva, Badiashile, Cucurella, Ugochukwu, Enzo, Gallagher, Palmer, Sterling, Jackson.
- By Craig Mahood
Newcastle team news
Eddie Howe has revealed his XI to face Chelsea this afternoon.
And it's significant team news too. Alexander Isak is BACK in the squad after injury!
Bruno Guimaraes and Tino Livramento also come in from the team that lost to Bournemouth.
NEWCASTLE XI: Pope, Trippier, Lascelles, Schar, Livramento, Bruno G, Miley, Joelinton, Almiron, Gordon, Isak.
- By Craig Mahood
Two on the mend…
Pochettino did reveal that Christopher Nkunku and Roméo Lavia weren't too far away from a return.
He told the press: "Lavia and Nkunku are still out. There is no timeframe for them, it is difficult to say because we need to assess them day-by-day.
“They are in a good condition, Nkunku a little bit ahead of Lavia. He was doing things with the group last week but it is still not a full recovery to be part of the squad.”
- By Craig Mahood
Setting the scene
St James' Park looking resplendent in the winter sun.
Not particularly warm but certainly a near perfect day for football out there.
The players arrived a short time ago – plenty of gloves on show anyway!
- By Craig Mahood
Poch injury update
Mauricio Pochettino admitted his team were made aware of the starting XI yesterday after his international players returned unscathed.
While not giving anything away, the Chelsea boss did reveal Reece James would be involved. He said: “Colwill is going to be in the squad. We’ll see how much James can play. Reece is doing well, he’s at a very good level, he’s improving every day.
“We are so happy with him and hope that he can cope with the demand of 90 minutes and we’ll see tomorrow if he can cope with that. Now he is one player you know is going to play!”
- By Craig Mahood
Howe injury concerns
It remains a lengthy injury list for Eddie Howe, though the manager was coy on Alexander Isak’s imminent return to the first team fold.
The striker has struggled with an injury picked up in the early stages of the defeat to Dortmund back at the end of October.
But he reckoned there was some in the treatment room who’d be a bit longer out.
Speaking yesterday, Howe said: "I don't want to give too much away. I think the majority of players we've spoken about previously are longer-term injuries.
“We're looking at probably January for a few of them. There's a couple of others who sooner, we hope, they can be back involved and help us through December.”
- By Craig Mahood
Football's here!
Ahhhh an afternoon of football on a Saturday – have we missed you!
And we’re back with a treat this afternoon as rejuvenated Chelsea make the trip north to take on Eddie Howe’s Newcastle.
The Toon fans will be hoping the break helped one or two of their battered and bruised stars return to some sort of fitness ahead of a pivotal stage of the season.
While Chelsea fans were gutted a two-week break came when it did after scoring four goals at Spurs – then in that crazy draw with Man City before the pause.
Newcastle sit six points off Spurs who occupy fourth at present, with Chelsea a further four points behind them.
It’s set to be a cracker.
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