Game On! Newcastle v Liverpool

St. James' Theme Park Are you sitting comfortably? Probably not but I guess we'll have to begin anyway.

I don't think many fans, even staunch optimistic ones, will be looking forward to the game today as struggling Newcastle take on the resurgent Reds. Then again we have to play them at some point and we make every one look good at the moment so losing this one won't be too much of a surprise.

You see there is the problem. There's a losing mentality among the fans right now and generally feelings like that transmit to the players. This time however it has been the opposite as fans have remained extremely patient and have backed the team to the hilt with very little in return from the players.

But now the time to start performing is most definitely upon us. It's gone from saving the season to saving Premier League status, again, and that just isn't good enough.

To ease you into the game you can view the match preview by clicking here as it details all the injury news you need to know about, a (not very pleasant) history of the fixture as well as some stats and facts and general rambling.

I mentioned injury news above and that will manifest itself into the team news which you can find at the bottom of this article a little under one hour prior to scheduled kick-off subject to me arriving back home from my carvery lunch in time, in which case should I not manage that I'll get it posted as soon as I return.

The other thing to look out for are streams of the game. It is of course live on Sky Sports so our defensive generosity can be beamed live around the world, but for those who don't have Sky or aren't in the ground or are too skint in the run up to Christmas to be in the pub then you're likely to be looking for a stream which you can usually find in the 'comments' section below.

So are you ready for this? I'm not.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Rob Elliot, Paul Dummett, Chancel Mbemba, Fabricio Coloccini, Daryl Janmaat, Georginio Wijnaldum, Vurnon Anita, Jack Colback, Moussa Sissoko, Siem de Jong, Papiss Cisse

Subs: Karl Darlow, Jamie Sterry, Kevin Mbabu, Yoan Gouffran, Florian Thauvin, Ayoze Perez, Aleksandar Mitrovic

Liverpool: Simon Mignolet, Nathaniel Clyne, Martin Skrtel, Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno, Lucas, Joe Allen, James Milner, Jordan Ibe, Firmino, Christian Benteke

Subs: Adam Bogdan, Kolo Toure, Jordan Henderson, Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana, Divock Origi, Cnnor Randall