Newcastle favoured to beat Hull City at St James' Park

Official schedules confirm it: Newcastle United host Hull City at St James' Park on Saturday 19 September, kicking off at 12:30pm domestically. That fixture detail has been locked in since the league published its calendar back in June, and nothing in the record points to any reschedule touching this game. The case for Newcastle rests on where each side stands after three rounds. Newcastle have taken five points from three matches, having drawn their opener with Liverpool before sharing the points at home with Bournemouth. That is not a dominant start, but it is a top-flight platform, and it comes with home advantage against a side that has only just returned to the Premier League. Hull, for their part, showed real character in a 2-2 draw at Chelsea, a result their manager Sergej Jakirovic praised as resilient. That kind of point away at Stamford Bridge suggests Hull will not be pushovers, and a newly promoted team playing with freedom can trouble more fancied hosts. Still, matching that away form on the road again at Newcastle is a tougher ask than doing it once at Chelsea. Watch the team news in the days before kickoff. Any fresh injury blow to a key Newcastle attacker, or evidence Hull can sustain their away resilience, would be the detail most likely to shift this from a home win towards a share of the spoils.</analysis>