Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe rates their clash with Manchester City this weekend as the "ultimate test".
Newcastle host City on Sunday.
Howe said, "We'd love a very good performance. This is the ultimate test. These games against City and Liverpool are the real barometer of our quality. We want to narrow that gap between us and the top teams in the division.
"Ryan Fraser we hope will be fit and available. He had a back spasm late last week so he was a late withdrawal from the Brighton game. Matt Targett we'll make a very late decision on."
On last season's meetings with City, Howe added: "The results were hard on us but I thought they were tighter than they look on paper. The home game, there were bits of our performance that were very good but you need a bit of luck and to be clinical and we probably weren't that."