Eddie Howe's triple Newcastle United hint for next game as £135m plan falls flat

There's more than one reason to suspect Eddie Howe won't feel the need to make wholesale changes for the weekend trip to West Ham United as the Magpies aim for an instant return to form in the capital.

Reason one: The Newcastle United boss insists he was happy with his side's performance in the opening 60 minutes under the St James' Park lights.

Reason two: Howe believes had his side scored the first goal, after dominating the early stages of the clash, they would likely have went on to win the game.

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Reason three: The St James' Park chief threw £135m worth of talent on from the bench and watched his side suddenly become less likely to score.

Harvey Barnes, Sandro Tonali, Jacob Murphy, Callum Wilson and Kieran Trippier make up the aforementioned quintet who were given the opportunity to stake a claim when it comes to returning to Howe's starting XI come the weekend. Barring one incident involving a Murphy cross and a dubious decision not to award a penalty on Wilson, it is hard to think of any stand out moment from the five substitutes.

"I'm pretty pleased with the first 60 minutes albeit we were losing the game 2-0," Howe told reporters at full-time. "We opened them up and had chances to score. Up to that point I was pretty pleased, but the last 30 minutes I didn't enjoy. We tried a bit too hard to score. We'll rue that when we watch the game back.

Discussing his substitutes and the lacklustre end to the game, he added: "At the end we had players out of position, so I didn't like the way we looked at the end. But up until that 60-minute mark I thought we were the dominant team."

Howe has a point RE his side's performance. Newcastle started well, had an early goal ruled out, enjoyed plenty of chances and ultimately went in at the break behind courtesy of sloppy defending from a corner. Newcastle were still firmly in the game up until Aaron Wan-Bissaka doubled the visitors' advantage - and had a fair few chances to level the tie before that point.

However, it is clear Newcastle's substitutions did not have the desired effect. Of the five who were introduced from the sidelines, four were either attackers or midfielders. Yet three of them have failed to find the net this season and even Barnes, who has four to his name in the Premier League this season, has dropped off in front of goal after a blistering start to the campaign.

With all this being taken into consideration, you would not be surprised to see Howe stick to an almost identical lineup at Selhurst Park this weekend. Dan Burn will almost certainly return in place of Lloyd Kelly upon his return from suspension but should Joe Willock and Bruno Guimaraes recover from the injuries they sustained in the 2-0 defeat, it will be interesting to see whether Howe makes any other changes at the top end of the pitch.

Newcastle are set to assess the duo in the coming days after Willock was replaced at half-time with a leg issue, while Guimaraes limped off in the closing stages with a glute problem.