Midfield maestros could start together

FORMER Newcastle United defender Steve Howey believes Rafa Benitez could pair Mikel Merino and Jonjo Shelvey in midfield today.

The duo have yet to start a match together this season, with Shelvey absent from the starting line-up since his opening-day red card against Tottenham.

Since then, Merino has established a promising partnership with Isaac Hayden, with the on-loan Borussia Dortmund man already a fans’ favourite.

But Shelvey and Merino played together for the final 20 minutes of Newcastle’s 2-1 win over Stoke City last weekend.

And Howey, who made 191 league appearances for the Magpies, predicts Benitez may be tempted to start the duo at Brighton.

Howey, speaking at a Show Racism the Red Card event at St James’ Park on Thursday, said: “It’ll be interesting to see what the manager does with his team. Does he bring back Shelvey? He came on against Stoke, while in the previous game he didn’t get a sniff.

“I think the manager might change that, but it’s a team going into the game full of confidence.

“Merino has come into the side ahead of Shelvey and has settled in well. I think he’ll stop in the team, while I think Shelvey will probably come in for Hayden, but let’s see what the manager does.”

Newcastle started the weekend fourth in the Premier League after three straight wins.

And Howey believes the confidence will be high as United look to record a fourth consecutive topflight win for the first time since 2014.

“Confidence is a major thing - and this side is very confident at the moment, not only individually, but also as a team,” he added.

“I’d watched Stoke the previous week against Manchester United and I was impressed with them.

“Brighton have had a couple of dodgy results and they’ve struggled a little bit, though things are starting to pick up a little bit now with Chris Hughton.

“They’ll want to try turn their season around but if we can go down there and get four in a row, then that’ll be amazing.”