After witnessing Newcastle reach their first domestic cup final since 1999 on Tuesday night, St James’ Park is once more the venue as West Ham United make the long visit up north in the next round of the 2022-23 Premier League campaign. Both sides will be looking to leave SJP with the three points for totally different reasons. A win for Newcastle will help them move one step closer to finishing the season in the top four whereas their opponents are looking to secure back to back victories as they aim to beat the drop.
Newcastle seen off Southampton on Tuesday night as they secured their spot in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on the 26th February. Joelinton scored the only goal of the game in the first leg at St Mary’s and in the return leg it was local lad Sean Longstaff who grabbed a first half brace to help them seal victory.
Eddie Howe’s Magpies are flying high right now, they go into Saturdays game with only two defeats in 27 competitive matches across all competitions this season. They have turned St James’ Park back into a fortress and a place that opposition teams dread to visit and their record proves it…they are undefeated in their last 15 home games. Liverpool were the last team to beat them at home back in April last year.
Their defence has seen them record a league-high 12 clean sheets so far this term and they have not conceded in their last six premier league fixtures. West Ham will be hoping to end that at the weekend, the Hammers have found the net eight times in their last nine matches.
Last week the Hammers ended a winless run of seven games as they overpowered fellow relegation contenders Everton 2-0 on home soil. They also recorded a victory over Derby County in the 4th Round of the FA Cup, goals from Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio either side of half time helped see them through and secured a place in the hat for the fifth round draw.
David Moyes’ side have won three out of their last five matches in all competitions including one draw which will give them some momentum as they aim to move away from the relegation zone. West Ham can’t afford to slip up as they currently sit in 16th place and only one point above the bottom three. They will be optimistic for their trip to the north east though, in their last four games at St James’ Park they have claimed seven points, most notably in December 2018 and and August 2021 where the score line finished 3-0 and 4-2 respectively.
Newcastle Team News: Bruno Guimaraes will miss out on Saturday’s visit of West Ham due to picking up a straight red card in the second leg of the Semi Final mid week. Alexander Isak could be out of contention due to concussion protocols, the Swedish striker had to be withdrawn against Southampton after being walloped in the head from a James Ward-Prowse free kick. Joelinton could return to the centre of the park in Bruno’s absence which means that Anthony Gordon could be in line to make his debut, that’s if Allan Saint-Maximin doesn’t get the nod.
West Ham Team News: Maxwel Cornet, Gianluca Scamacca and Kurt Zouma are all on the injury list so they will miss out. New signing Danny Ings went off on his debut for the Hammers last week with a knee injury so he is a doubt. Vladimir Coufal and Declan Rice are expecting to be named in the starting eleven in place of Ben Johnson and Flynn Downes.
Sutty’s Match Prediction: A recent mini revival from the Hammers will give them some hope of causing an upset at SJP on Saturday but they will have to be at their best to beat the home side with the best defensive unit in the league. Guimaraes will be a miss but the Magpies have more than enough quality in their side to deal with his absence. For me I reckon Longstaff or Joelinton will find the net as we get the victory. My score prediction being Newcastle United 3 West Ham United 0.
@jsuttonwrites
04.02.2023