Newcastle United trio ruled out of Manchester City clash — and five players set to miss out

Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe says he has no fresh injury concerns heading into this evening’s Premier League clash at Manchester City (kick-off 8pm).

The Magpies were without Joe Willock (hamstring), Emil Krafth (knee) and Javier Manquillo (groin) for last weekend’s opening day win over Aston Villa.

Willock isn’t expected to return until after the September international break, while Krafth is still around four weeks away from returning to training as he continues his 12-month long recovery from an ACL injury.

Meanwhile, it’s highly likely Matt Ritchie, Mark Gillespie, Loris Karius, Paul Dummett and Lewis Miley will again miss out on the matchday squad after doing so against Villa last week.

Howe’s players are aiming to become the first Newcastle side since 2014 - when the likes of Adam Armstrong, Rolando Aarons, Mehdi Abeid and Ryan Taylor played in a 2-0 League Cup win - to leave the Etihad Stadium victorious.

Also, the Magpies have never won at the Etihad in Premier League history.

“We want our players to go there with all the positive emotions that our first game of this season should bring,” Howe said. “We’re looking at this game as an opportunity for us to be at our best.

“We have to concentrate on Manchester City’s strengths and have to try and stop those but we also have to be ourselves. We want to become a top team, consistently, in the Premier League and I think to do that, we have to have a clear identity ourselves ad try to implement that on other teams.

“I want a positive mindset, not just for the supporters, but for the players and let’s see what we can do.”