Son and Bale both benched as Mourinho sticks with Kane-Vinicius partnership

Son Heung-min (£9.4m) and Gareth Bale (£9.5m) are only among the substitutes as Tottenham Hotspur head north to face struggling Newcastle United.

Kick-off at St James’ Park is at 14:05 BST.

Jose Mourinho had said in his pre-match briefing that Son would be “selected” for this afternoon’s game, although in hindsight, the omission of the word “start” from that declaration did leave a bit of wriggle room for a benching.

Bale is also omitted from the starting XI and Mourinho has indeed named the same Spurs side that recorded a 2-0 win over Aston Villa in Gameweek 29.

That means that Carlos Vinicius (£6.9m) will once again partner Harry Kane (£11.6m) in the visitors’ attack, while Sergio Reguilon (£5.5m) has recovered from injury to start.

After a dismal display at Brighton in Gameweek 29, Steve Bruce has rung the changes.

The Newcastle boss has made five alterations in all, with Matt Ritchie (£4.9m), Dwight Gayle (£5.9m), Emil Krafth (£4.2m), Jacob Murphy (£4.9m) and Sean Longstaff (£4.6m) recalled.

Javier Manquillo (£4.2m), Ciaran Clark (£4.5m), Joe Willock (£4.7m) and Ryan Fraser (£5.6m) are the men to make way, along with Isaac Hayden (£4.6m), whose season is over thanks to a knee injury picked up a fortnight ago.

Allan Saint-Maximin (£5.1m) is only among the substitutes after his return from injury, while Callum Wilson (£6.5m) is not yet fit enough to feature despite a training ground comeback.

Son and Bale were Gameweek 30’s two most-sold players, suffering a combined 760,000 sales – although the removal of the Korean’s flag in FPL did lead to a late surge in incoming transfers.

Kane is the most-captained player of this round of fixtures, meanwhile, having been handed the armband by just under two million Fantasy managers.

GAMEWEEK 30 SO FAR…

Danny Ings (£8.4m) made a blistering return from injury on Sunday, scoring once and assisting Stuart Armstrong‘s (£5.5m) effort as Southampton came from two goals down to beat Burnley 3-2.

Ings then ‘assisted the assister’ for Saints’ third goal, as Theo Walcott (£5.8m) crossed for Nathan Redmond (£6.4m) to cap a remarkable comeback.

Chris Wood (£6.2m) also bagged two attacking returns at St. Mary’s, courtesy of a penalty and a headed flick-on for a Matej Vydra (£4.8m) strike.

Erik Pieters (£4.3m) was substituted with a first-half injury, with Charlie Taylor (£4.4m) returning from his own recent lay-off in his stead.

Newcastle United XI: Dubravka, Krafth, Lascelles, Dummett, Ritchie, Shelvey, Longstaff, Murphy, Almiron, Joelinton, Gayle.

Tottenham Hotspur XI: Lloris, Tanganga, Sanchez, Rodon, Reguilon, Hojbjerg, Lo Celso, Ndombele, Lucas, Kane, Vinicius.