NEWCASTLE: Eddie Howe has revealed Newcastle United are gunning for Chelsea as they look to sign off the first half of an impressive Premier League season in style.
Howe’s front foot approach, which has been a refreshing change on Tyneside, is a far cry from the last time the Blues visited Tyneside.
Just weeks after the takeover by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and pre-dating Howe’s term at the helm, United surrendered to a Thomas Tuchel-led Chelsea outfit 3-0. With current assistant coach Graeme Jones in caretaker charge, Newcastle were dominated from start to finish, much to the anguish of success-starved United fans.
And Howe believes winning is key, but entertaining in the process is also incredibly important for the Magpies.
“That’s part of the way that I want my teams to play. In part, that comes down to trying to build a team that entertains,” said the head coach.
“I always try to picture myself as a supporter and try to think what would I want to see from my team if I was coming here as a supporter. That helped shape my philosophy when I was starting out in coaching and management. It’s important that you don’t really forget that as a manager.
“We want to see high energy, an intent to try and win the game from the players. That can only come across in the right body language and it’s just setting the environment for the players to try and deliver that, try and get those conditions right.
“There’s no right or wrong way to try and approach a football game. It’s just how I see the game at this moment in time.”
Victory would see Newcastle stretch their lead over Graham Potter’s Chelsea to a remarkable nine points, and cement the Magpies’ place in the Premier League top three.
When asked about that possible gap, Howe said: “I don’t think it’s Chelsea related, we want to win. We just want to try and get as many points as we can.
“I think the players have done really well in consistently being able to produce not just the performances but get the results we wanted.
“This is going to be a tough game, we’re under no illusions of how difficult this task will be. We’re going to need our highest level of performance to win.”
Meanwhile, Howe has revealed club record signing Alexander Isak’s bid to return from injury remains on track.
The Sweden international has played just three times for United since making the $68million switch from Real Sociedad, having been out since September 17.
Howe is hopeful the forward will be available to play in the Magpies’ mid-season friendlies against Al-Hilal and Rayo Vallecano, the first of which will be in Saudi Arabia in early December.
“I’m not sure whether he’ll train with us initially,” Howe said.
“I think he had a scan the other day on his injury and it looks good, it looks like it has healed. Now the process starts of building him up and making sure he’s robust enough to come through training. I’m not sure he’ll join in with us initially but we hope by the time the games starts, he’s available for selection.”