It's called having a squad though isn't it mate, it's daft how much people on here panic when we've got more than one decent player for each position.
Indeed, it is great for squad depth that we have a player who is more than capable of doing a job when the first choice player is out. However, will Guthrie be happy being second fiddle to Tiote and Cabaye? He might want more regular football elsewhere (which is understandable) so like I've said, hope he signs a new contract.
We've seen already that Tiote and Cabaye aren't going to be fit / not suspended at the same time for much of the time, and that's just accounting for when we play 4-4-2 tbh. Guthrie will get in the side when he's playing this sort of football most of the time and Pardew will tell him so if he's not daft.