Injury ravaged Newcastle take on Tottenham.

Tottenham are the visitors to St James' Park on Saturday afternoon for what is set to be a tough test for Alan Pardew's Newcastle United.

There was once a time when playing Tottenham used to pretty much guarantee us three points, but that isn't the case anymore. They are a Champions League team these days and play nice, attractive, attacking football which is very pleasing on the eye. I have an irrational dislike of 'Spurs, but even I'll doff my cap to them on that front.

The match will signal the return of John Carver to the Newcastle dugout for the first time in over 6 years as he takes his seat next to Alan Pardew for his new assistant manager role. The last time Carver was in our dugout we won 3-0, more of the same tomorrow will do very nicely indeed.

First of all though, Newcastle have to dig in and try to scrape a team together. The term 'bare bones' has never been more relevant, and with the lack of a breakthrough in the transfer market as yet, the selection problems won't get any better for the visit of Tottenham.

Andy Carroll is still sidelined with a thigh injury, Steven Taylor is out with a hamstring injury, Alan Smith is likely to be out for the season with ankle ligament damage, Dan Gosling has suffered a slight setback in his recovery from a cruciate injury and will not be risked, Kevin Nolan has a throat infection and probably won't be able to play the full 90 minutes, and Cheik Tiote serves the second match of his three game ban. Ryan Taylor and Hatem Ben Arfa remain sidelined with their respective long-term injuries.

See what I mean? Bare bones....

We know Danny Guthrie is set to start, and we know that the goalkeeper and defence are pretty settled, and we also know that it is likely to be Shola Ameobi and Leon Best up front for us, which just leaves the midfield as a problem for us. Well not so much a problem, more the fact that it will be weakened. I'd go with a team a bit like this:

Newcastle: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi, Leon Best.

In contrast, Tottenham have no fresh injury concerns ahead of the trip to the North-East. Former Magpie Jonathan Woodgate is still injured, as is Ledley King, Tom Huddlestone and Jamie O'Hara. Apart from that, Redknapp has a clean bill of health for his squad, and he can also call on new signing Steven Pienaar after the South African midfielder signed from Everton in midweek.

Last time out Tottenham managed a rather tame 0-0 draw with Manchester United. In that match they played a team consisting of:

Tottenham: Huerelho Gomes, Alan Hutton, Michael Dawson, William Gallas, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Aaron Lennon, Wilson Palacios, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Rafael Van der Vaart, Peter Crouch.

Tottenham last won on Tyneside back in 2004, whilst Newcastle go looking for a fifth consecutive home win over 'Spurs. If Tottenham score first they generally win, and they have done that on nine occasions so far this season. However, they do concede goals and have done so in their last 11 consecutive away league matches.

Newcastle have won more corners than any other team this season, with the current count being 160 corners for The Magpies. Kevin Nolan will score his 50th Premier League tomorrow if he can find the back of the net.

We haven't lost a league game since I stopped predicting results, so I'm going to continue that omen and see if it works in our favour again!

Howay the lads!