Newcastle v Manchester United: Premier League – live!

Tuanzebe will play centre-back, his favoured position, with Ashley Young and Diogo Dalot as full-backs. A chance to see how he matches up alongside Harry Maguire.

It’s just possible that this will not be seen as the biggest result of the day.

And Ole laments that we’re not in the 1990s any more, worse luck.

Fergie remains a favoured hotline.

Steve Bruce has made the promised changes and gives Matthew Longstaff his debut alongside big brother Sean. Emil Krafth, Paul Dummett, Issac Hayden, Yoshinori Muto and Christian Atsu have been dropped. Longstaff the younger, Ciaran Clark, Allan Saint-Maximim, Jetro Willems and DeAndre Yedlin are given a go.

It all looks a bit League Cup, to be quite honest. For both teams.

Even allowing for Newcastle’s problems this season, that is not a very strong Manchester United team. Far from it, in fact. Two defenders playing out of position, no Paul Pogba, the enigmatic Fred in midfield and an attack that is youthful yet not exactly dynamic.

Newcastle: Dubravka, Clark, Schar, Lascelles, Willems, Yedlin, S Longstaff, M Longstaff, Saint-Maximin, Almiron, Joelinton.

Subs: Darlow, Dummett, Carroll, Shelvey, Gayle, Krafth, Atsu.

Manchester United: De Gea, Young, Maguire, Dalot, Tuanzebe, Fred, McTominay, Pereira, Mata, James, Rashford.

Subs: Romero, Rojo, Greenwood, Gomes, Matic, Chong, Williams.

The fans loathe the owner and are not sure of the manager, even though he professes to be one of them, a long-standing lover of their club. The football is turgid, and goals are hard to find. Yes, take your pick of which of Newcastle United and Manchester United that refers to. The cap fits both of them. The days when this was one of the grandest fixtures in the Premier League have receded as far as Alan Shearer’s hairline. Steve Bruce was club captain of Manchester United when this pairing met in March 1996 and Ole Gunnar Solskjær was just a glint in the eye of Alex Ferguson’s scouting department. Today’s managers were never Old Trafford colleagues, with Bruce shipped out in the 1996 summer the ‘little Norwegian’, as he became known, arrived in Manchester. They are, though, both favourite sons of Fergie and both have admitted to seeking advice from the grand old man.

Their teams have much to improve on. Newcastle’s 5-0 pummelling at Leicester was relegation writ large. For Manchester United, Monday’s draw with Arsenal was perhaps the lowest-amped match ever between another pair of fallen giants while that 0-0 draw with AZ Alkmaar was the football equivalent of being locked in a room with only a long read on protein shakes for company.

And so a classic cannot be expected but then again, this is the best league in the world.

Kick-off: 4.30pm BST