The 39-year-old will be the man in the middle as United look to round off the year with a win over the champions at St. James’ Park.

Tierney’s first taste of Premier League football came at St. James’ too, when he was assistant referee in a game against Hull City in the 2008/09 season. After a stellar lower-league spell, he became a top flight official in 2014.

The Wigan whistler will be taking charge of his first match involving Newcastle in 2020/21, though nine of his ten outings this term have been in Premier League games. The other came in the Carabao Cup.

Tierney’s last Magpies game was the 2-1 win over Manchester City in January 2019, while he has had an eventful run of games so far this term, showing 40 yellow cards and three reds already.

Harry Lennard and Adrian Holmes will assist Tierney on Wednesday, with Lee Mason as fourth official and Stuart Attwell as VAR. Stephen Child will fill the role of assistant VAR.