Johnny: Why. Sign. Him. We. Need. A. Striker.

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Michael Emons
BBC Sport at St James' Park

Tottenham made an excellent start to last season as new boss Ange Postecoglou had an instant impact as Spurs were top of the league and unbeaten after 10 matches with 26 points.

But they could not last the pace, eventually finishing fifth - 25 points behind champions Manchester City.

A win today for Postecoglou's side will take them second, albeit maybe only for a few hours depending on how Liverpool get on at Manchester United in the later game.

Newcastle themselves are also unbeaten in 2024-25, with one win and a draw in the league and then a penalty shootout success over Nottingham Forest in round two of the Carabao Cup, a competition Eddie Howe's side reached the final of two seasons ago.

Newcastle United

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Newcastle boss Eddie Howe, speaking to Sky Sports: "Harvey [Barnes] deserves to start he has been knocking on the door, I hope he goes well today."

On Sandro Tonali: "There is a temptation [for him to start] as he is a top quality player. I am always thinking what the team needs, Sandro needs a period to build up his fitness. He is ready to play, but for how long that's a different question."

On Spurs: "We had two contrasting games against Tottenham last season. A new match today we start from zero and we have got to earn everything."

12345: Given how Palace ended last season and the players they had and added by the first week of July, I genuinely thought they might be an outside shout for qualifying for the Europa Conference League or even Europa League if they kept not just their star players but the strong depth.

Crystal Palace

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Crystal palace boss Oliver Glasner, speaking to PLP: "What's important for us is to strengthen the squad, it took until the last day to get new players. Unfortunately none can play today, but they will help us over the season."

On Jefferson Lerma being injured: "The problem is his big toe. He is in a lot of pain when he steps into his boots so it's not possible for him to play today."

On Chelsea: "We know we are facing a very good Chelsea team, but we are here to win the game. The performances [against Brentford and West Ham] were OK, but we were missing some details.

"We create chances, but we didn't score off them and we gave the opponents two-to-three situations - in the Premier League you get punished for this. Today it will be important to be efficient."

Michael Emons
BBC Sport at St James' Park

Image source, Michael Emons

Newcastle and Italy midfielder Sandro Tonali could make his first Premier League appearance since serving a 10-month suspension for breaching betting regulations.

The 24-year-old has not played a league match since 21 October when he featured in a 4-0 home win over Crystal Palace and is among the substitutes today.

He made his return away from home in midweek, playing the opening hour in the Carabao Cup second-round tie against Nottingham Forest, and received a great reception from the Newcastle fans.

"I was so pleased to see the support for Sandro," said boss Eddie Howe. "You could feel the warmth and the genuine love and affection. You could see the outpouring of love from Sandro to the fans at the end. He would have loved being back out there.

"He has had a really tough time and had an isolated period where he has been training on his own, travelling back to Italy on his own and had a lot of time to think about his situation.

“He's a top professional, has handled himself brilliantly and been an unbelievable team-mate to the players that have been playing. We’re getting a player back in our midst that’s a top-level player. It’s about managing the first few games back."

Image source, Michael Emons

Chelsea

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Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, speaking to PLP on the transfer window: "I was happy with the squad. We have a good squad it was just a matter of doing the right things - I am happy."

On the changes to the squad: "Since we play every three days we will try to change eight-to-nine players and today we do it again."

On Crystal Palace: "Both games [this season] they deserves something more. They were very good this year and the way they finished last year was unbelievable."

Chelsea's players are going through their final routines in the sunshine at Stamford Bridge. It's a different scene at Newcastle where there are grey clouds over St James' Park.

Crystal Palace, a lot was made about Oliver Glasner coming in last season and the exciting brand of football.

Chelsea are never far away from a crisis and they had everybody scrutinising the way they do the business in the market and their top-heavy squad. But Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer linked up superbly last week.

Palace will be quite expansive but I think that will suit Chelsea.

Chelsea's tails are up, I think they'll down the Eagles.

Sutton's prediction: 2-1 to Chelsea.

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Jacob: Sancho is a baller no doubt, but I don't think the deal makes any sense. I'm just glad though that we didn't get Victor Osimhen. I feel he's over-hyped and would probably be another Alexandre Pato in blue.

Eddie Howe's Newcastle team haven't quite clicked. I don't think it's a really settled Eddie Howe because he hasn't got the players in which I think he would've wanted.

I thought Spurs were excellent against Everton. There will be goals in this game, there can't not be.

But this will be toe-to-toe, this will be like a basketball match. I'm going to back Ange Postecoglou's Spurs.

Sutton's prediction: 2-3

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A good day for Chris Sutton on Saturday.

His predictions that Ipswich would draw 1-1 with Fulham and Manchester City would win 3-1 at West Ham were spot on.

Will he be right with his forecast for today's games?

Chelsea 2-1 Crystal Palace

Newcastle 2-3 Tottenham

Man Utd 1-2 Liverpool

Read: Sutton's predictions.

Malcolm: The establishment of an all new backroom staff to manage transfers seems to have been a complete waste of money. The announcement that Federico Chiesa has signed for Liverpool puts the top hat on it. It had been touted that Newcastle were interested along with at least another 100 players, yet hardly anybody through the door. Disappointing!

Newcastle United

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Newcastle legend Alan Shearer says the club have "failed" manager Eddie Howe.

The Magpies missed out on signing defender Marc Guehi and have endured a frustrating transfer window, which included the sales of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh in a bid to comply with Profit and Sustainability rules.

Responding to a message on social media, which stated Howe and the squad "deserved better", Shearer replied: "They haven’t helped Eddie at all. Failed him."

Newcastle United

It will be interesting to hear Eddie Howe's thoughts on Newcastle's failure to strengthen his squad in the closing hours of the transfer window.

When asked if he is happy with the current squad on Friday before the window closed, Howe said: "We have a good squad and we like all of the players we have in our squad, but there is a feeling, of course, that there are a few areas of the squad we felt we needed to strengthen.

"I think we will carry those emotions, depending on what happens, into the last few hours [of the transfer window]."

Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport football news reporter at Stamford Bridge

Image source, Reuters

Chelsea are without Jadon Sancho, Reece James and Romeo Lavia but there are still a number of high profile players left out.

Ben Chilwell remains uninvolved after the transfer window closes with neither Benoit Badiashile or Marc Guiu making the bench.

There are a host of other senior players looking for moves in alternative transfer windows which remain open, including the Dutch, Belgian, Turkish and Saudi Arabian markets.

It highlights that although Chelsea had a good buying window by bringing in 12 players that they could have done better in selling players.

Michael Brown
Former Tottenham midfielder on BBC Radio 5 Live

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Crystal Palace have managed to keep Marc Guehi and they will still get the figure (£65m) another time down the line. Without being disrespectful to Newcastle, I think bigger clubs will come in for him and perhaps even offer more.

Crystal Palace

Anyone else think keeping Marc Guehi was one of Crystal Palace's best pieces of business in the transfer window?

Refreshing to see them keep hold of the England defender instead of cashing in on Newcastle's interest.

Newcastle had FOUR bids for the player turned down, the most recent worth up to £65m.

Read: Guehi to stay at Palace despite Newcastle pursuit.