Eddie Howe has a difficult decision before next weekend's match against West Ham: Does he leave out his captain Jamaal Lascelles and new signing Bruno Guimarães or does he break up a winning team?
Jamaal Lascelles was in the starting line-up for Newcastle United 's wins against Leeds and Everton, but he missed the 1-0 win over Aston Villa due to a reported illness.
New signing Dan Burn stepped in to replace him and was named Man of the Match, which makes Burn pretty undroppable. Alongside Burn was Fabian Schar , who ended up with a bandaged head after getting a cut, and having played in all three of Newcastle's back to back wins is again tough to drop.
Unless Howe changes formation, it seems unlikely that Lascelles will just walk back into the team, which is the story of the reinforced and resurgent Newcastle: competition for places means nobody is assured of starting, except perhaps Kieran Trippier.
Even new signing Guimarães, brought in from Lyon for tens of millions of pounds amid a deluge of social media razzmatazz, has found himself on the bench. Against Everton it was apparently to give him a chance to recover from international duty, but he was still on the bench against Aston Villa.
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At Lyon, no minor club, he started almost all their league matches, and when Newcastle travel to London on Saturday to face West Ham, you can bet he will not be content to start on the bench again.
But what can Eddie Howe do? Against Villa, Joe Willock did what everyone wants him to: run into the box with the ball. By doing so he won the match-winning free-kick, as well as continually fighting for possession.
Then there is the other Brazilian, Joelinton. It is a broken record now, but deservedly so: Joelinton is a very good midfielder. Against Villa he did the vital tackling and moved the ball from defence to attack.
Then Jonjo Shelvey: a risk at times with his tackling, but along with Willock and Joelinton, he has formed a midfield trio which has resulted in three wins in a row. Sean Longstaff may have a long wait to make his case again.
At full-back, Kieran Trippier and Javier Manquillo both went off injured against Villa. Paul Dummett and Emil Krafth replaced them. Their efforts were commendable, but the changes made Newcastle look vulnerable.
With Trippier now out for a while, Manquillo will presumably drop in. If Manquillo is out, it may be that Howe starts to think about changing the system to shore up those wings. If so, team-sheet decisions will become easier.
If not, Howe is going to have a difficult decision to make about Lascelles and Bruno: Does he break up a winning starting eleven? Or does he hope the pair will take one for the team?
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