Newcastle United

Matty Renton, The Magpie Channel TV, external

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for NUFC, and we're feeling good!

That was the brilliant banner displayed in the gallowgate end of St. James' Park on Saturday as the city united for the opening game of the season.

The buzz is normally always there for the start of a new season, even under the previous ownership, just for the simple fact that football returns after a couple of months absence. However, this time around it felt different in Newcastle.

The atmosphere around the city before the game was of resounding excitement for not just this match but for the entire season. There is a different type of air floating around Tyneside at the moment, one I've never felt in my lifetime and one the previous generation refer to as the 1990s all over again.

The entertainers era of the 90s that came so close to Premier League success is in the same breath as Eddie Howe's black and white army.

The cathedral on the hill was absolutely electric on Saturday as Newcastle put in a dominant display with a 2-0 win over newly-promoted Nottingham Forest. The pride, the passion and the connection is well and truly back between club and supporters. The sleeping giant is awake, can it disturb the top six this season?

Atalanta have received interest in Luis Muriel from Newcastle, although the Colombia striker, 31, is also being tracked by Juventus. (Tuttosport - in Italian), external

Want more transfer news? Read Tuesday's full gossip column

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Newcastle's new goalkeeper Nick Pope was relieved that his new club could get off to a winning start in the Premier League season after both he and they had to wait so long for one in the previous campaign.

The 30-year-old England international was part of the Burnley side which collected all three points for the first time at the 10th attempt in 2021-22 when they beat Brentford 3-1 at Turf Moor on 30 October. 

He was on the receiving end when the Magpies finally ended their win drought with a 1-0 victory over  the Clarets on 4 December - their 15th game of the league campaign.

But after Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest, he said: "It's what you look for as a goalkeeper, what you look for as a team.

"We want to win as many games as we can and it's lovely to get off to the start that we did and have the performance to go with it as well.

"We had a good laugh because it took me 10, 11 games to get a win last year and there were a few more here at Newcastle so it's nice to be one from one."

Newcastle’s victory was given to them by goals from Fabian Schar and Callum Wilson and continues their much-improved league form in 2022, which has seen them win 13 of 20 games.

Image source, Getty Images

Matthew Raisbeck, BBC Radio Newcastle's Magpies commentator

If there was a surprise over Newcastle's starting 11 on Saturday, it was probably that big-money summer signing Sven Botman wasn't in it.

Eddie Howe's biggest selection headache was over who played in the centre of defence, and the Magpies head coach went for Fabian Schar and Dan Burn - leaving Botman and club captain Jamaal Lascelles on the bench.

It seems as though Botman, who appeared as a late substitute, will be introduced gradually.

That's something that will be easier for Howe to do if Burn and Schar continue to play as well as they did against Nottingham Forest.

Howe told BBC Radio Newcastle: "It was a difficult call because all four centre-halves who've been fit through pre-season have been excellent.

"I went with the two that played the majority of the back end of last season where I thought, barring a couple of games, they were very good together.

"Sven has been excellent during pre-season, so it's not a reflection of his performances; it's more a reflection on how the team played at the end of last year.

"Sven will get loads of opportunities to play - I was delighted to give him his debut - and he'll be a top player for us.

"But, I don't think this period - similar to Bruno Guimaraes, when he came to the league - will do him any harm, in terms of seeing, and learning about, the speed of the game."

Listen to our discussion about Newcastle's win over Nottingham Forest on Total Sport from 18:00 BST on Monday on BBC Radio Newcastle

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Callum Wilson and Michail Antonio have debated who would score more goals throughout this season.

West Ham striker Antonio outscored Wilson last season scoring 10 goals to the Newcastle man's eight.

However, in their debate Wilson jokes that he "missed about 20 games and [Antonio] only scored one more goal."

The two strikers settled on a bet of a three course meal and the winner is also allowed to choose a guest. Whether that is cooked or paid for by the loser remains to be seen.

Listen to the full Footballer's Football Podcast on BBC Sounds

Newcastle legend Alan Shearer on BBC Radio 5 Live:

We’ve not had a lot of excitement in Newcastle for a long time. The job Eddie Howe did last season in securing Premier League safety and producing some of the football... and they've made a few new signings.

They’ve done it really well in a measured way. They haven’t gone out and spent ridiculous money like other clubs have chasing success – Everton for argument’s sake.

I’m hopeful for Newcastle. I don’t think we’ll get into the top six but we’ll be chasing seventh, eighth, ninth and that’s an improvement on last year. I don’t think our fans really expect top six either, they just want improvement. We’re all happy and relieved there’s a bit of hope and excitement.

We asked you for your post-match thoughts after Newcastle kick-started the new season with a win over newly-promoted Nottingham Forest.

Here are some of your comments:

Simon: A great team performance to kick-start the season. I still feel we need a good finisher to give the team further options.

David: I think it was a good steady start to the season. We made plenty of chances, around 25 shots, which suggests we need a top notch striker to convert some of those chances. Bruno was brilliant and Schar's goal was great. There's plenty to be positive about, so that suggests no relegation battle this season.

Neil: A very good performance, we were on the front foot from start to finish, which shows our levels of fitness are excellent. We dominated throughout. We do need to get the final ball right however, if we had done that today it could have been five or six.

Bill: First opening-day home win since 2013. It was a good all-round performance. If we can produce a similar performance in our next game away at Brighton and get a point at least from our two games against City and Liverpool, it will have been a great start to the season. It still highlights our need for attacking re-enforcements but there's still three weeks of the window left.

Andrea: We're absolutely a different team now Eddie has taken over. It was a well deserved win too, I love them.

Watch all the highlights from Saturday's six matches in the Premier League, plus the best moments from Crystal Palace v Arsenal on Friday here.

For all of the highlights from Sunday including West Ham v Manchester City watch Match of the Day 2 here.

Ever week Garth Crooks selects his team of the week and Fabian Schar's stunner helped him make the team on the opening weekend...

Fabian Schar

His first-half tackle on Jesse Lingard in the Newcastle box was enough to suggest the Swiss defender was in no mood to give the Nottingham Forest player one inch.

Schar's strike for Newcastle's opening goal was struck beautifully. This footballer can defend and play in equal measure. Precisely what Lingard is doing at Forest I am not entirely sure, but a one-year deal on a free transfer? What sort of commitment is that? Does Lingard think we are all stupid?

Take the deal and split if the team goes down - is that the plan? I'm not sure who looks more ridiculous; Lingard for signing or Forest for accepting the terms.

Find out who else made Garth's team of the week here

Newcastle are prepared to make a new push to sign Red Bull Salzburg striker Benjamin Sesko. (Northern Echo), external

Want more transfer news? Read Monday's full gossip column

Were you at St James' Park or following the match from home?

Either way, you can now have your say on the game here

Matthew Howarth, BBC Sport

The opening-day visit of Nottingham Forest was described by many Newcastle fans as a “potential banana skin”, but there was to be no slip-up from the Magpies at St James’ Park as they overcame the newly promoted side with a patient display.

For a while, it looked as though Eddie Howe’s failure to add attacking reinforcements so far this summer might come back to haunt him, with Steve Cooper’s side frustrating the hosts for long spells.

Fabian Schar has always had an eye for the spectacular, having scored one of the goals of the season against Burnley in February 2019. The Switzerland international’s strike on Saturday was not dissimilar – a thunderous right-footed drive that struck the inside of the post on its way in and broke the visitors’ stubborn resistance.

Callum Wilson opened his account for the campaign with a deft first-time flick over Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Dean Henderson with 12 minutes remaining. The former Bournemouth man has now scored in four of his last five Premier League openers.

Big things are expected of the Magpies this season. Newcastle fans will hope this sets the tone for a successful campaign.

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe to BBC Match of the Day: "We’ve laid the foundation of how we want to play, the team we want to be.

"There’s no guarantee we can deliver that every week but that’s certainly the blueprint of how we want to play.

"Going in at half-time I was really pleased with how we had played but we hadn’t scored and the game was very much there to win – but I’ve seen many games where half-time brings a total change of momentum and the good thing about our performance was we didn’t allow that.

"We did need a bit of patience today. Fabian’s goal came at a brilliant time for us and then the crowd saw us home."

Newcastle goalscorer Callum Wilson: "We were dominant with the ball but we didn’t score – but in the second half the quality showed.

"First game of the season, we weren’t clinical enough and they played with a back five so it was congested in there and we needed to be a bit more intricate.

"I back myself, I want to go the World Cup so it’s about hitting the ground running. I’m disappointed I didn’t score more.

"I’m confident in all the players and staff here, we had a good end to the season last year and started well today but we don’t want to get carried away."

The confirmed Newcastle and Nottingham Forest team news is now in, with kick-off at St James' Park less than an hour away.

Follow the action and the rest of the Saturday's Premier League matches here

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Matthew Raisbeck, Newcastle United commentator for BBC Radio Newcastle

Things were a bit dicey for Howe until January as they'd had some bad results.

The lowest point was the Watford draw if you discount the FA Cup exit. Since then it's been smooth sailing. I don't think there are many fans that will doubt he deserves the deal.

I wonder though if there are some who will be relieved and reassured because they may feel if Gareth Southgate is no longer the England manager after the World Cup, that the FA will come calling for Eddie Howe.

You can listen to debate on Howe on Radio Newcastle's Total Sport from around 10 minutes here

Former Newcastle defender John Anderson

It's been great for Howe up to now as everything has gone well and fans have taken to him. He hasn't seen the other side of it yet, where things don't go well.

That's how quickly football management changes. Up until now he thinks it's great and you would do.

A lot of people will say he deserves to be rewarded but now needs to do it through a full season. It is good that all of a sudden there is stability throughout the club. We don't know how long the deal is. You just hope he can do what he has done since coming in and take us on to a new level again.

A new season - and a new Premier League predictions expert.

BBC pundit Chris Sutton is taking on the challenge from Mark Lawrenson for the 2022-23 campaign and will try to pick the correct scores for every top-flight game against a variety of guests - and this season you can get involved too.

Joining Sutton this week is football commentator and BBC Fantasy 606 co-host Alistair Bruce-Ball.

Sutton's prediction: 1-0

It's great to see Forest back in the Premier League after 23 years and I hope they do well.

I was born in Nottingham and I was a massive fan of Brian Clough's European Cup-winning sides when I was growing up. Then I was lucky enough to play under two players from that time, Martin O'Neill and John Robertson, at Celtic.

Forest could do with a player like Robertson now, but they have made a couple of interesting moves in the transfer market already - Jesse Lingard is a good signing and I like the look of their new Belgian midfielder, Orel Mangala, too. I think they will stay up.

Newcastle, meanwhile, don't have to worry about beating the drop this year. Eddie Howe did such a good job there in the second half of last season and, after it looked like they were in a big relegation fight, they stayed up very comfortably in the end.

Howe played a really good brand of football as well as getting results and I am expecting more of the same this time, although they do need some reinforcements up front.

They are trying to get James Maddison from Leicester but I don't quite understand why they have left it so late before the start of the season to go for him, and we will have to wait and see how that one pans out.

As far as this game goes, it is another tricky one to call - but I am going for Newcastle to edge it because they have got home advantage.

ABB's prediction: 2-0

It's great to have Forest back in the top flight as they were such a thrilling and successful team as I got into my football in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But Newcastle finished last season strongly under Howe, who improved them significantly at both ends of the field, and I expect them to be too strong for Forest on their return.

Find out how Sutton and Bruce-Ball think the rest of the weekend's action will go and vote on the result you expect here

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Newcastle United midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has been ruled out after sustaining a hamstring injury during the friendly defeat by Benfica.

Federico Fernandez and Jamaal Lewis are sidelined with calf injuries.

Nottingham Forest's Sam Surridge is making good progress after undergoing summer surgery on a groin injury.

New signing Omar Richards will miss the start of the season due after suffering a hairline leg fracture in training, while Ryan Yates remains out.

Will Eddie Howe start summer signing Sven Botman? Predict your Newcastle XI

Where will Jesse Lingard fit into the Forest team? Predict your Forest line-up

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Eddie Howe has praised his opposite number Steve Cooper as Nottingham Forest prepare to play Premier League football for the first time in 22 years.

The Newcastle boss knows the promoted side will offer a stern examination for his players on the opening day at St James’ Park and credits Cooper for Forest’s transformation.

“You look at their league position from when he joined and the job that he did,” said Howe. “Not only to miss out on automatic promotion but then to deal with that and come through the play-offs.

“That’s an incredibly difficult thing to do.

“He did it with an attractive style of play and they’ll be difficult opponents for us.

"We don’t underestimate them at all.”