November 26, (THEWILL) – Eddie Howe will personally take charge of his first Newcastle United game after a COVID-19 test came back negative ahead of the team’s weekend trip to the Emirates to face Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal in Saturday’s lunch kickoff.
As THEWILL reported, on November 8, the former Bournemouth manager was named Newcastle’s new head coach, the club’s first appointment following a Saudi-backed takeover that rocked the English Premier League.
However, after a positive coronavirus test, Howe was forced to isolate, leaving Newcastle without a manager for the first Premier League game of his tenure, a home match against Brentford.
In that 3-3 draw, Howe’s assistant manager Jason Tindall and Graeme Jones, the previous temporary coach after Steve Bruce’s sacking, guided the players. Now, Newcastle have announced that Howe will be on the touchline against the Gunners.
Tindall made this obvious to reporters on Friday in his response to the availability of Howe for the fixture: “You want your manager here with you. We’ve missed him as a group of staff and I’m sure the players have missed seeing him at the training ground. We’re certainly looking forward to having him back.
“Eddie has seen training back every day. We film it and that will then be sent to him in the afternoon to review it back, as will we as coaches. Then we will feed back what’s necessary to the players the following day.”
Newcastle United are the only team in England’s top four divisions without a win — their current winless streak of 12 top-flight games is the longest since a run of 13 between December 2007 and March 2008.
In the Premier League this season, no team has conceded more than Howe’s new side (27), and the Magpies have lost 16 of their last 17 games with Arsenal, giving the confidence advantage to the red and white side of London.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
