Welcome to Eurosport's live coverage of the clash between Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur at the Sports Direct Arena as the 2012/13 season gets underway!

The two teams are heading out onto the field now on a lovely summer's evening. We'll be underway shortly. share your thoughts on the game with me via Twitter @tony_mabert.

Shola Ameobi picked up an injury in the warm-up. Sylvain Marveaux was set to be named on the bench in his place, but Newcastle are apparently struggling to track him down! Roman Amalfitano has been named as a substitute instead.

When Spurs enjoyed that 5-0 win over Newccastle in the winter, Emmanuel Adebayor scored one goal and set up the other four. The Togo striker is still a Manchester City player, so Jermain Defoe is the club's only senior striker as things stand.

At the age of 41 years and 92 days old, Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel becomes the seventh oldest player ever to play in the Premier League. He is set to overtake former Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann in that chart in 60 days' time.

Tottenham head coach Andre Villas-Boas: "Newcastle away is never an easy trip. These are two teams that want Champions League qualification and are fighting for the same objectives. We want to make sure we push a little further than that and we will have to see if we can do that. It will be good to start the season well, but we have to be aware that we are facing an opponent of high value."

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew: "We have to look at the games and how we schedule them but the League comes first for sure. We want to try and push the Champions' League teams – we were the closest to them and want to narrow the gap. So I will approach every game logically and play a side that I think can win every game."

Head-to-head: Tottenham are unbeaten in their last five matches against Newcastle, since a 2-1 loss on Tyneside in December 2008 when Charles N’Zogbia and Damien Duff scored the Newcastle goals. Spurs won 5-0 at home in their last meeting, at White Hart Lane back in February. The Londoners have not won a league game at the Sports Direct Arena since 2000, when Thimothee Atouba scored the only goal of the game.

Luka Modric is left out of Tottenham's squad for Andre Villas-Boas's first match in charge. The Croatian, who is close to joining Real Madrid, has not played all summer after refusing to go on the club's pre-season tour of the US and Spurs will not risk him getting injured on Tyneside. Gylfi Sigurdsson makes his Spurs debut but fellow summer signing Jan Vertonghen only starts on the bench. Scott Parker misses out with an ankle injury, so Jake Livermore anchors the midfield alongside Sandro.

Newcastle's prospects on the opening day of the season have been given a huge boost as injury doubts over strike duo Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse plus midfielders Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa all proved to be unfounded. Defender Fabricio Coloccini misses out with a knock but Steven Taylor returns after a long-term injury to make his first appearance of 2012. New recruit Vurnon Anita is on the bench.

TEAMS: Newcastle: Krul, Simpson, S Taylor, Perch, Santon, Ben Arfa, Tiote, Cabaye, Gutierrez, Ba, Cisse. Subs: Harper, R Taylor, Williamson, Anita, Gosling, Obertan, Shola Ameobi /// Tottenham: Friedel, Walker, Gallas, Kaboul, Assou-Ekotto, Livermore, Sandro, Lennon, Sigurdsson, Bale, Defoe. Subs: Cudicini, Naughton, Vertonghen, Jenas, Townsend, Van der Vaart, Kane