Newcastle United are without Alexander Isak for their Premier League opener against Aston Villa.
Anthony Elanga makes his competitive Newcastle United debut in this afternoon’s Premier League opener away to Aston Villa.
The Magpies face Villa having pipped them to Champions League qualification last season on goal difference. Nick Pope starts in goal behind a back four of Kieran Trippier, Fabian Schar, Dan Burn and Tino Livramento. Bruno Guimaraes captains team and lines up in the midfield alongside Sandro Tonali and Joelinton.
Elanga, who joined from Nottingham Forest for £55million, starts on the right wing with Harvey Barnes on the left. Anthony Gordon is deployed as the central striker ahead of Will Osula in the absence of Alexander Isak.
Isak is refusing to play at Newcastle in an attempt to force a move to Premier League champions Liverpool.
Speaking about the situation at Friday’s press conference, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said: “No, there’s been no change to the situation. All my focus has been on the training, on Aston Villa, on the transfer front in terms of trying to get players in. And you can imagine that that is all-consuming for me.
“So Alex’s situation has been unchanged for a while and that will continue to be the case, I think.”
Asked if he had asked Isak to play at Villa Park, Howe said: “I think those conversations, of course I’ve said many times during this summer I want him to play, I want him to train and of course I’ve had those conversations with him, but I think the details of those conversations need to remain private.”
Malick Thiaw, who arrived from AC Milan for £35million earlier this week, is on the bench, as is another new signing in Aaron Ramsdale. South Korean teenager Park Seung-soo is rewarded with a place on the bench after catching the eye in pre-season.
Newcastle are set to announce the signing of midfielder Jacob Ramsey from Aston Villa, but he isn’t involved against his former club as he wasn’t registered with the Premier League in time to play.
Speaking about the Villa game, Howe said: “I think very good support, very good team. I think Unai’s done a brilliant job with them tactically, they’re excellent.
“Their way of playing has been ingrained and you can see whether they play home, away, pre-season games, they play the same way, all with the same principles and they’re a tough team to come up against and if you’re off in any way in your game, they’ll punish you, they’ll find your weakness.
“As I said earlier, we’ve had some really good games against them, both positive and negative and you always learn from the negative ones. So we’re going to be ready for a really tough game.”
