Newcastle United v Bournemouth: Premier League – live | Premier League

21 min: Joelinton shoots high over the bar from the edge of the Bournemouth penalty area after being teed up through good work from Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes.

20 min: Dan Burn gives an underwhelmed Newcastle crowd something to cheer about, relieving Dango Ouattara of possession with a fine challenge that gets the Geordies out of their seats.

18 min: Tyler Adams is penalised for another foul on Bruno Guimaraes but referee Stuart Attwell keeps his yellow card in his pocket for now. Bruno is not impressed with the official’s munificence.

16 min: A man in understandable demand in the current transfer window, Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez picks out Antoine Semenyo with a pass down the right touchline and the Bournemouth winger wins a throw-in for his side. Nothing comes of it.

14 min: There’s a break in play so referee Stuart Attwell can give Tyler Adams a ticking-off (but no yellow card) for a robust lunge on Bruno Guimaraes. Newcastle free-kick, wide on the right. The ball is swung into the Bournemouth penalty area by Anthony Gordon and immediately headed clear.

12 min: Joelinton spreads the ball wide to Jacob Murphy on the right touchline but he’s unable to find a teammate in the Bournemouth box. The ball ends up in the hands of Kepa.

11 min: Perhaps it’s something to do with the early kick-off but it’s been an uncharacteristically sluggish start for Newcastle, who are being pulled hither and yon by the intensity of the Bournemouth press.

8 min: Tino Livramento will be disappointed with his role in Bournemouth’s goal, as he failed to track Antoine Semenyo’s run in behind him down the inside left to latch on to a perfectly weighted through ball to the byline.

7 min: Newcastle finally wake up and get forward. A Sandro Tonali pull-back from the byline fails to find anyone in a black-and-white striped shirt and Bournemouth clear their lines.

Bournemouth lead! Justin Kluivert shoots a low, hard shot into the far corner after connecting with a Semenyo pull-back from the byline. That was coming!

3 min: Bournemouth have started brightly in these very early stages. Dan Burn coughs up cheap possession, the Cherries advance and Dango Ouattara brings a very smart save out of Martin Dubravka after connecting with a David Brooks dink. The follow-up shot is blasted high over the bar by Semenyo and it’s a let-off for Newcastle.

2 min: David Brooks takes the ball around Lewis Hall down by the byline and pulls a low delivery into the Newcastle penalty area. Sandro Tonali intercepts the ball and clears.

1 min: Newcastle get the ball rolling, kicking into the Leazes End and wearing their usual home kit. Their visitors are in green shirts, shorts and socks.

Not long now: Stuart Attwell and his team of match officials lead both sets of players out for the last of the pre-match formalities with St James’ Park rocking. Between Newcastle’s lofty league position and excellent chance of making the Carabao Cup final, the mood on Tyneside is understandably giddy.

Bournemouth’s players march out on the pitch wearing T-shirts paying homage to their stricken Turkish teammate Enes Unal, who suffered a season-ending knee injury recently. The sentiment? “We’re all with you, Enes.” Good luck to him in his recovery. It’s probably worth noting that such is Bournemouth’s injury crisis, Andoni Iraola has named six teenagers with no Premier League experience on his bench.

Newcastle: While his touchline antics mean he is not everyone’s cup of tea, the club are benefitting from Jason “Mad Dog” Tindall’s odd-couple relationship with Eddie Howe and his attention to detail (and the noble art of time-wasting). Louise Taylor has the lowdown on Newcastle’s assistant coach …

At his pre-match conference yesterday, Bournemouth’s manager was asked if he considers Newcastle to be genuine title contenders. “It’s a big question,” he said. “They are not so far from Arsenal, for example, and Arsenal definitely are title challengers.

“Probably you need to ask Eddie the question. They are playing so, so well that it makes you ask me these questions. They are beating everyone, also they’ve done it in a run of games that was not easy: they beat Arsenal, [Manchester] United and Tottenham in this period. They’ve performed better than them but I’m not brave enough to say it [that they are title contenders].”

Newcastle: Eddie Howe has refused to discount Alan Shearer’s suggestion that Newcastle have entered the title race after nine straight wins, including six in the Premier League. Words: Louis Taylor.

Alexander Isak: Newcastle’s Swedish striker has scored in their last eight top flight games and now has his sights set on the records of the only two players who have scored in more consecutive Premier League games: Rudd van Nisterlrooy (10) and Jamie Vardy (11).

Today’s match officials

• Referee: Stuart Attwell.

• Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis and Natalie Aspinall.

• Fourth official: Dean Whitestone.

• OUR: Peter Bankes.

• Assistant VAR: Stuart Burt.

Those teams: On loan goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga returns between the sticks for Bournemouth, after being forced to sit out their draw against Chelsea, his parent club, on Tuesday. On the subjkect of parents, the Spaniard and his partner recently became the welcomed twins into the world, so congratulations to all concerned.

In Bournemouth’s only other change, Justin Kluivert comes into the side in place of the injured James Hill, which means we can probably expect to see Lewis Cook deployed at full-back.

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe picks the same 11 players who started against Wolves in midweek, while Fabian Schar has overcome his illness to take his place on the bench, where Miguel Almiron is also among the substitutes for what could be his last appearance in a Newcastle matchday squad.

Although he has become a more peripheral figure for Newcastle this season, if this is goodbye for the hugely popular Paraguayan with the big, beaming smile, he’s sure to get a great send-off from the St James’ Park faithful.

Newcastle: Dubravka; Delivery, Botman, Burn, Hall; Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton; Murphy, Isaac, Gordon.

Subs: Odysseas, Trippier, Schar, Osula, Almiron, Kelly, Willock, Longstaff, Miley.

Bournemouth: Kepa; Cook, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkez; Christie, Adams; Brooks, Kluivert, Semenyo; Ouattara.

Subs: Travers, McKenna, Jebbison, Silcott-Duberry, Adu-Adjei, Akinmboni, Winterburn, Kinsey, Rees-Dottin

Early Newcastle team news

Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope remains out with a knee injury but the club can call on Martin Dubravka, who has proved a more than capable deputy, following the news that rumours of his imminent move to Saudi Arabia were greatly exaggerated.

Callum Wilson and Harvey Barnes are both sidelined with thigh injuries, while long-term absentee Jamaal Lascelles is back in training but still a long way off full fitness. Fabian Schar trained yesterday following his recovery from illness but may not be ready to feature today. Miguel Almiron is expected to be named in Newcastle’s matchday squad despite reports linking him with a £10m return to MLS side Atalanta.

“It’s not ideal,” said Eddie Howe of the prospect of losing the Paraguayan winger. “But I don’t think it would be ideal from anyone’s viewpoint. From our perspective, we don’t want to lose players but we know the reality of PSR [profit and sustainability rules] and our ongoing management of that. We are making decisions not based on football but making ones for the future.”

Early Bournemouth team news

Much was made the of the fact that Bournemouth only had 12 fit senior players to choose from for their midweek draw against Chelsea and their list of lame and halt makes for grim reading.

Their strikers Enes Unal and Evanilson are both sidelined, with the former out for the rest of the season, while Marcos Senesi, Julian Araujo, Marcus Tavernier, Adam Smith, Alex Scott, Luis Sinsterra, James Hill and Julio Soler are also unavailable.

“It’s not going to be the most difficult starting XI to guess,” said Andoni Iraola in his pre-match press conference. “We are not going to recover anyone from the other day. Half the teams in the Premier League have seven, eight or nine injuries – but in our very short squad, we suffer it more.”

Seeking a club record tenth consecutive win in all competitions, Newcastle host a Bournemouth side who are unbeaten in 10 and also enjoying something of a purple patch going into the game selected for today’s televised early kick-off.

Bournemouth fans already inconvenienced by the prospect of a 700-mile round-trip could probably do without the additional expense and/or hassle of either an overnight stay or an ludicrously early start but it’s no great surprise that they have been treated so shabbily by the powers that be. Twas ever thus.

A win today for Newcastle will take them third in the table above Nottingham Forest on goal difference for at least one day, while Bournemouth will overtake Manchester City and Aston Villa to go sixth, should they take all three points. Kick-off at St James’ Park is at 12.30pm (GMT) but we’ll be here in the meantime with team news and build-up.