Howe must unleash £70k-p/w NUFC "Rolls Royce" today, he "could play for Barcelona" - opinion

Newcastle United travel away to face Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League today as they look to bounce back from successive defeats.

The Magpies lost to Chelsea and Everton, both by a 1-0 scoreline, prior to the international break and now have the opportunity to get back to winning ways in the top-flight.

Eddie Howe may look to change up his team in order to avoid a third defeat in a row and one change he will be able to make is the return of Jonjo Shelvey, with the midfielder back in training after dealing with an illness.

Ahead of the match, the head coach spoke about his options in the middle of the park, saying: “Midfield has been a key area for us. We’ve had a really good mixture of technical & physical quality. If we decide to play with three, I need to pick which three & it’s a difficult choice but nice one to have.”

Howe must now unleash Shelvey in midfield against Tottenham as he is a crucial player for the Toon and will be key to their chances of picking up all three points.

The ex-Liverpool man was absent against Chelsea and Everton as both games ended in defeat for the Magpies. They missed his guile in the number eight role, with the club’s form before those losses highlighting his influence.

Prior to those games, he was one of only two outfield players – along with Fabian Schar – to play every single minute of the exceptional nine-game unbeaten run in the Premier League.

The £70k-per-week gem averaged an impressive SofaScore rating of 7.01 across those nine matches. This shows that he was consistently delivering quality performances to help the team on the pitch, as he played a key role in the unbeaten stretch.

Issac Hayden dubbed him a “Rolls Royce” of a player last month and Matt Ritchie once claimed