Newcastle United vs Hull City - prediction, team news, lineups
By Oliver Thomas | 17 Sep 2026 16:30, Last updated: 17 Sep 2026 17:13
Newcastle United will be looking to return to winning ways when they lock horns with Premier League surprise package Hull City at St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon.
The two teams meet competitively for the first time since November 2016 when the Tigers celebrated a penalty-shootout victory at home to the Magpies in the EFL Cup fifth round following a 1-1 draw.
Matthias Jaissle’s honeymoon period as Newcastle manager is well and truly over, after his new-look Magpies outfit suffered a humbling 4-1 away defeat to Leeds United on Monday, ending the club’s five-game unbeaten start to the campaign in all competitions.
Jaissle has acknowledged that “the learning curve needs to be fast” for Newcastle, who have now faced more shots than any other Premier League team this season (76), averaging 19 per game, and failed to match Leeds’ levels of ‘intensity, duel behaviours and physicality’.
Sitting 12th in the table, where they finished last season, Newcastle have a two-week international break sandwiched between their next two top-flight fixtures against newly-promoted duo Hull and Coventry. The Magpies will view these games with a mixture of opportunity and caution, knowing that dropping points against either underdog will leave some questioning the readiness of this youthful squad.
Improvements in defence are required if Newcastle wish to build a strong run of form; they have kept just two clean sheets in their last 20 Premier League matches, while only Crystal Palace (42) and Chelsea (40) having conceded more top-flight goals than the Magpies (39) in 2026.
Newcastle will also endeavour to end their winless home run against Hull in the Premier League this weekend, having drawn one and lost two of their previous three encounters they have hosted at St James’ Park, most recently coming from two goals down to draw 2-2 in September 2014.
Hull City’s traveling supporters were dreaming of the unthinkable at Stamford Bridge last weekend, breaking into audacious chants of "we are going to win the league" as their side stood on the precipice of a historic first-ever away win over Chelsea.
For a fleeting moment, the Tigers were on track to climb to the summit of the Premier League table, courtesy of two goals from standout attacker Mohamed Belloumi, only for Joao Pedro’s second-half strike to salvage a 2-2 draw for the Blues.
Nevertheless, head coach Sergej Jakirovic hailed the character of his players to claim another “huge result”, having already caught the eye with victories over Man United (2-0) and Coventry (1-0) as well as holding Europa League winners Aston Villa to a goalless stalemate.
Sitting fourth in the table, Hull have collected eight points from their opening four PL games (W2 D2); the only newly-promoted clubs to ever accumulate more in their first four fixtures of a new campaign are Nottingham Forest in 1994-95 and Bolton Wanderers in 2001-02 (both 10).
The Tigers now head into Saturday’s clash with Newcastle seeking to become the first promoted team to avoid losing any of their opening five Premier League matches since Portsmouth in 2003-04. However, defeat here would represent their 16th in 21 top-flight games.
Newcastle United form (all competitions):
Newcastle will be without Anthony Elanga (unspecified) and Jacob Ramsey (thigh), the former was left out of the matchday squad against Leeds and remains sidelined, while the latter sustained his issue during the warm-up.
Nico Gonzalez (concussion) will also miss out after coming off early at Elland Road, while Amar Dedic (hamstring), Dan Burn, Ewen Jaouen (both ankle), Joelinton (thigh) and William Osula (foot) are also in the treatment room.
Jaissle will consider rewarding Bazoumana Toure with his first Premier League start after he scored a consolation goal last time out. This could therefore see Jacob Murphy drop out of the side and Harvey Barnes moved over from the left flank to the right.
Eighteen-year-old Sean Steur and 20-year-old Lewis Miley could link arms in centre-midfield, unless Jaissle opts to hand either Joe Willock or Aladji Bamba a start, while Tino Livramento and Fabian Schar will both be pushing to start at right-back and centre-back respectively.
As for Hull, Ilyas Ansah (back), Jack Butland (shoulder), Charlie Hughes, Hidemasa Morita (both groin), Elliot Matazo (knee/ineligible) and Darko Gyabi (thigh/ineligible) all remain unavailable for selection.
Another in the treatment room is Nobel Mendy, who was taken to hospital after being forced off with a nasty head injury in the draw with Chelsea. New signing Lucas Herrington, who turned 19 earlier this month, could therefore take his place at centre-back to play alongside John Egan and Semi Ajeyi.
Jakirovic has no reason to shake up his team in any other positions, but the likes of Brooke Norton-Cuffy, Lucas Gourna-Douath, Tim Iroegbunam, Sorba Thomas and Mohamed-Ali Cho are all pushing to force their way into the first XI.
Newcastle United possible starting lineup:
Hornicek; Livramento, Thiaw, Botman, Hall; Steur, L. Miley; Barnes, Fernandez-Pardo, Toure; Wissa
Tzolakis; Ajayi, Egan, Herrington; Coyle, Slater, Crooks, Giles; Belloumi, Stroud; McBurnie
While Newcastle will be desperate to put things right and bounce back from their heavy loss to Leeds, facing a high-flying Hull side in their current form is by no means a straightforward assignment.
The Tigers will back themselves to breach the Magpies’ vulnerable backline and ultimately frustrate the hosts enough to secure a hard-earned share of the spoils, preserving their unbeaten start to the new campaign.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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