, Eddie Howe is the Premier League Manager of the Month and Almiron is the Player of the Month. Newcastle's position is even more impressive because of their sluggish start to the season, when they won only one of their first seven games. Since then they've had six wins out of seven, scoring at least four goals on four occasions. St James' Park hasn't been such a joyful place since the early 2000s. Chelsea began encouragingly under Graham Potter but have won none of their last four league games and were disconcertingly poor in losing to Brighton and Arsenal. The last time they lost three in a row in the Premier League was during Jose Mourinho's 2015 meltdown. Potter needs and deserves time to make sense of a slightly unwieldy squad. Whether he gets it is another matter, and there have already been a few moans about his tinkering. One thing's for sure: Chelsea are in a dogfight for a Champions League place. Especially as Newcastle are in the process of turning the Big Six into the Big Seven. Kick off is at 5.30pm, and we'll have team news shortly.){kind=link}
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The teenage wing-back Lewis Hall, who started at Manchester City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, makes his Premier League debut for Chelsea. He replaces Marc Cucurella in one of six changes from Chelsea’s last league game, the 1-0 defeat to Arsenal. Raheem Sterling isn’t even in the squad, though we don’t yet know why.
Callum Wilson is only fit enough to be on the bench for Newcastle. Chris Wood replaces him in one of two changes from last weekend’s 4-1 win at Southampton. The other is Joelinton for Jacob Murphy.
Newcastle United (4-3-3) Pope; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Longstaff, Guimaraes, Willock; Almiron, Wood, Willock.Substitutes: Darlow, Lascelles, Targett, Manquillo, Shelvey, Murphy, Anderson, Wilson, Saint-Maximin.
Chelsea (possible 3-4-2-1) Mendy; Azpilicueta, Koulibaly, Chalobah; Loftus-Cheek, Jorginho, Kovacic, Hall; Mount, Gallagher; Broja.Substitutes: Bettinelli, Thiago Silva, Cucurella, Pulisic, Zakaria, Ziyech, Havertz, Hutchinson, Aubameyang.