LONDON – Newcastle United are ready to go “all in” and give their absolute best this English Premier League season, manager Eddie Howe said of his Champions League-bound team on Friday.
The Magpies, backed by their Saudi owners, have taken less than two years to transform from a side struggling for English top-flight survival to one who will be playing in Europe’s elite club competition this campaign.
Domestically, Howe knows the expectations are now higher for his team, who finished fourth in the Premier League last season and will start the new term at home against Aston Villa on Saturday.
“Naturally you move from challenge to challenge and now I think the one in front of us is our biggest challenge, but we have to be excited about it. We have to take it head on,” he said of the new season.
“We go into a very difficult start and that’s another challenge added to it, but we’ll give it our best shot.
“We’ll go all in and that’s all I ask the players to deliver – their absolute maximum.”
Newcastle, who were also League Cup finalists last season, played out a thrilling 3-3 pre-season friendly draw with Villa in Pennsylvania, so both teams would know what to look out for on Saturday.
Howe has added AC Milan’s midfield maestro Sandro Tonali to his team as Newcastle’s main summer signing.
Winger Harvey Barnes and fullback Tino Livramento have also joined from Leicester City and Southampton respectively.
The Magpies would be buoyed by the fact that they are unbeaten in their last 14 Premier League home games against Villa, winning on eight occasions.
Unai Emery’s team, however, won their last encounter 3-0 at Villa Park in April.
Villa finished seventh last season and are looking forward to a Conference League play-off against either Hibernian or Luzern, having posted their best league finish for over a decade.
The signs are looking good under Emery, but the Spaniard would have noted that Villa have lost their opening league fixture the past two seasons.
“Starting against Newcastle is a very good challenge for us,” he said.
“It’s difficult and I’m very excited about how we can face the match, analysing them, the match we played in pre-season.
“They are feeling strong at home and their objective has now changed completely from two years before. They have to be in the top four.
“We want to be as close as we can to be a candidate to be in the top seven or top four.
“That is the challenge we are going to face.”
Newcastle will be without the injured Emil Krafth, Javi Manquillo and Joe Willock, while Alex Moreno, Emi Buendia and Jacob Ramsey will miss out for Villa.
