Newcastle United

Pete Davey
Fan writer

Another big weekend, another cup quarter final for Newcastle United.

It’s been rocky season to say the least for us but a chance at getting to Wembley and to move 180 minutes from a trophy cannot be passed up. It would mean everything to Newcastle United to lift the FA Cup - it’s been nearly 70 years since we last won it and with our new owners, they want that major trophies as soon as possible.

Some in the fan base are saying, rest players, play the youth. Not me. Play our strongest side as Manchester City will. It’s already the hardest ground in England to go to, give yourself a chance at least and with the international break after this players will get a chance to rest up before 10 massive Premier League games kick back in.

This match is huge for Eddie Howe as for me there are two key objectives. Firstly, a trip to Wembley would get Howe serious brownie points with the fans, especially beating City.

The second objective is securing European football to continue to climb up the league. Which one is more important? Of course a trophy, but we have the biggest obstacle in our way.

Pete Davey can be found at LoadedMag NUFC, external

Image source, Getty Images

Anthony Gordon has been handed his first England call-up for the upcoming friendly matches against Brazil and Belgium.

The Newcastle forward made 16 appearances for England's under-21 squad and senior boss Gareth Southgate has rewarded him for his fine displays at club level.

"[He's had] consistently good performances," said Southgate. "He was very close in November. He' continued his form, he's scoring and his work for the team is excellent. He competes, which is important. I really like his attitude."

Gordon has 10 goals and seven assists for Newcastle this season, often filling in as a central striker given the injury troubles for Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson.

"We watched him closely in the under-21s where he fulfilled a different role as a false nine but did that really well," He's had a very good season with goals against the big teams which is interesting to see."

Gordon will get his first chance to make his England debut on Saturday, 23 March against Brazil at Wembley.

Full story here

Eddie Howe doesn’t need to motivate his players, or do anything different, to play Manchester City. They’ll be right up for it and be on top of their game because they know what City are all about.

They’ve done alright in big challenges and big games at certain points of the season, so there’s no motivation needed by Eddie.

It’s down to organisation, which is something he is good at, and then just go and try your luck.

They’re building a football club and a better platform. That was highlighted when they incredibly made the Champions League and showed they are an attractive club.

It was going to be tough to continue the force of last season and they probably thought there was going to be more players coming in and there hasn’t been.

There’s also been question marks over players leaving and key players being injured, the most notable their goalkeeper Nick Pope, which I do think has affected them in a big way.

It’s a tough ask though on Saturday because we know City are a good team.

Michael Brown was speaking to BBC Sport's Katie Stafford

Here are the key facts and figures before Saturday's game between Manchester City and Newcastle United in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

• This is the first FA Cup meeting between Manchester City and Newcastle since the 2019-20 quarter-final, when City won 2-0 at St James’ Park.

• Newcastle have lost 15 of their past 16 games at Manchester City, including the past nine.

• City have progressed from their past six FA Cup quarter-finals, since losing to Wigan in 2013-14. They could become the first team to reach the semi-finals in six consecutive campaigns.

• Since the start of last season, only Paul Mullin (nine) has scored more goals in the FA Cup (first round onwards) than Manchester City's Erling Haaland's eight. Haaland's eight goals have been scored over just two games - a hat-trick against Burnley in last season's quarter-finals, and a five-goal haul against Luton Town in the previous round this term.

• After scoring four goals in his first five FA Cup appearances for Newcastle, Miguel Almiron has now failed to find the net in his past six.

Watch Man City v Newcastle live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app at 17:30 GMT on Saturday

At which Premier League clubs are English players getting the most game time this season?

An edition of the BBC Football Extra newsletter posed that question earlier in the week and the results make for interesting reading for fans of a few clubs.

Against a league total of 30.2%, that the proportion of total minutes across all clubs that England-qualified players account for, the range for individual clubs varies from 8% all the way up to 64%.

At the top of the table sit Everton with 64% - this perhaps not hugely surprising as manager Sean Dyche tends to gravitate towards English players. At Burnley across 2020-21 there were four occasions when he picked an 11 containing 10 English players plus Czech striker Matej Vydra, by far the closest we have come to an all-English 11 in recent times. More on that below.

Newcastle are the only other club where England players account for more than half of all minutes this season, clocking in at 53%.

At the other end of the table we find two London rivals, Tottenham and Fulham, where England-qualified players have accounted for just 8% of all minutes this campaign. At Spurs, this includes the game time of Eric Dier, who is no longer at the club.

Two other noteworthy clubs are Aston Villa and Chelsea. In February 1999, Villa fielded an all-English 11, the last time this happened in the league. This season, the percentage of game time given to English players at Villa is 21% - though they do of course fare better if British players are factored in too.

Later in 1999, Chelsea became the first Premier League side to field an 11 without an English player. However, this season they sit at 35% and this despite injuries to Reece James and Ben Chilwell.

The wider context is that the league average of 30.2% is the lowest since 2018/19 (28.9%) and well down on the 36.3% figure of three seasons ago.

And which nations are getting more minutes? One notable nation is Brazil – there was not a single Brazilian in the league when the Premier League came into existence, now they account for the second most minutes played in the league and only four sides don’t have a Brazilian in their regular starting 11.

Sign up for the BBC Football Extra newsletter- delivered to your inbox every weekday.

Southampton will try to sign Argentine forward Matias Soule from Juventus if they are promoted to the Premier League, while Crystal Palace, Newcastle United and Aston Villa are also interested in the 20-year-old. (Calciomercato - in Italian), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Thursday's full gossip column

Want to see all the best football content from BBC Sport in one place? Now you can with the new BBC Football channel on WhatsApp.

The feed that is available alongside new BBC Sport and BBC Cricket channels gives you another way to stay up to date with our coverage of your favourite sports.

To go directly to the new channel you can click here, external or you can find it via WhatsApp by following the instructions on this page.

Eddie Howe will remain manager of Newcastle even if the Magpies fail to qualify for Europe this season. (Telegraph - subscription required, external)

Want more transfer news? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Image source, Reuters

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said his team were made to pay for "poor" goals given away in their 3-2 loss to Chelsea on Monday.

He told BBC Match of the Day: "It was a game that was in the balance, in the first half and the second half.

"I don't think there was a lot between the two teams and it was quite an open game, but the game got away from us really with the goals we conceded, which were really poor from our perspective.

"They weren't necessarily coming, sometimes you can feel a goal coming against you away from home when you're under pressure, but I didn't feel we were. They were self-induced mistakes from us."

• Chelsea have won 10 of their last 11 Premier League home games against Newcastle United (D1), scoring 25 goals and conceding just six.

• Since the start of November, only Brentford (8) have lost more Premier League away games than Newcastle (7), while the Magpies have shipped the most goals on the road during this period (24 in 9 games).

• Cole Palmer has scored in each of his last five home Premier League starts for Chelsea, becoming the sixth player to do so for the Blues in the competition and the first since Olivier Giroud in December 2020.

• Nicolas Jackson's opening goal (5:46), was Chelsea's earliest in a Premier League home game since December 2018 against Fulham (Pedro in the 4th minute).

• Alexander Isak became just the third Newcastle player to score home and away against Chelsea in a single Premier League campaign after Alan Shearer (1996-97) and Dwight Gayle (2017-18).

Manchester City are exploring a move for 26-year-old Newcastle United and Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes, who has a £100m release clause in his contract. (Football Transfers), external

Tottenham have joined Newcastle, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal in hoping to sign 24-year-old Portugal winger Pedro Neto from Wolves this summer. (Football Insider), external

Former Roma sporting director Tiago Pinto, who worked with coach Jose Mourinho at the Italian club, says he is interested in succeeding Manchester United-bound Dan Ashworth at Newcastle. (i Sport - subscription required), external

Want more transfer news? Read Tuesday's full gossip column