West Ham v Newcastle preview ahead of London Stadium clash | OneFootball

Welcome to the West Ham v Newcastle preview.

Sunday 2nd November and a 2pm kick-off.

Newcastle travel to London this weekend to play an out-of-sorts West Ham United.

The Toon have been buoyed by three wins in a row in all competitions and will look to achieve their first Premier League away win of the season.

West Ham aren’t having the happiest of times at present, they’ve made their worst start to a season in fifty-two years and fans are continuing to protest against the club’s owners. Hopefully NUFC will be able to exploit this unrest and treat their travelling fans to three points.

The last six league matches have seen Newcastle win three, lose two and draw one. We’ve scored seven goals and conceded five. The ten points gained have seen us rise to twelfth in the league and every result going our way could see us as high as seventh by the end of the weekend.

West Ham are currently on a dreadful run of form. They have lost five of their last six matches and drawn one. They’ve scored three goals and conceded twelve. The point gained from these matches leaves them second bottom of the league but a win could see them move up a place to eighteenth.

Last time out

Newcastle hosted Tottenham in the League Cup on Wednesday night and ran out comfortable 2-0 winners. Ahead through a first-half Fabian Schar header, Newcastle were always the better team and doubled their advantage at the start of the second half when Woltemade scored his sixth of the season. Spurs tried to make a game of it and forced two great saves from Ramsdale but Toon continued to look the more likely scorers and secured their place in a fourth successive League Cup Quarter-Final in the quest to defend our trophy.

West Ham travelled to Leeds last weekend and suffered a deeply disappointing 2-1 defeat. It took Leeds just three minutes to open the scoring and they were two goals to the good within quarter of an hour. Both goals came as a result of errors at the back and the travelling supporters made their feelings clear with open jeering and abuse of their owner, manager and players. They were able to pull one back in injury time but this was far too little, too late. Only four games into his tenure, Nuno Espirito Santo is already feeling the pressure.

Stat attack!

Newcastle are unbeaten in their past six away games at West Ham.

The Toon have enjoyed twelve Premier League victories away at West Ham.

NUFC have failed to find the net just once in the past eight trips to West Ham.

Memorable match

In December 2005, Newcastle travelled to West Ham and witnessed Micheal Owen’s finest hour in a black and white shirt. It took just five minutes for our record signing to open the scoring and send the away end of Upton Park into raptures. Unfortunately, we were soon on level terms when an own goal from future hammer Nobby Solano made it 1-1. The match stayed level until just before halftime when Owen again found the net with a flicked header. The pivotal moment came in the sixty-sixth minute with West Ham pushing for their second equaliser of the afternoon. Newcastle were able to break away and Alan Shearer took a touch before slamming the ball into the bottom corner to give us a two goal advantage. Anyone thinking that this sealed the points would be mistaken however as just seven minutes later future magpie Harewood netted from the penalty spot to make it 3-2 and this was the cue for the Hammers to pile on the pressure in the hope of achieving at least a draw. Thankfully this left them horribly exposed at the back and another break from the defence left Owen with the simple task of tapping home into an empty net to complete his hattrick and give NUFC one of their best away wins of the season. A week later he was injured and barely kicked a ball for the next eighteen months. Final Score West Ham 2-4 Newcastle

Played for both

Nobby Solano signed for Kenny Dalglish in 1997 and soon became a fan favourite. He was the first Peruvian to score in the Premier League when netting the equaliser in a 3-1 win over Wimbledon. Highlights of his first spell on Tyneside include a brilliant double away at 1860 Munich in the Intertoto Cup, scoring the winning goal in an incredible victory at Elland Road in 2001 and netting from the penalty spot away at arch-rivals Sunderland to secure a Wear-Tyne Derby victory. Less good was falling out with Sir Bobby over repeated travel for international matches in South America and he was sold to Aston Villa in January 2004. He was re-signed by Greame Souness in Sept 2005 and hammered home a beauty in a 1-0 win over Arsenal, he also single-handedly beat Everton with both goals and a man of the match performance in a 2-0 win. Always given a great reception from Toon fans even when Playing against United, Solano has gone down as one of our best ever foreign imports. He signed for West Ham in 2007 and spent one season with the Hammers, scoring four goals.

Marlon Harewood was a loan signing for NUFC during our Championship season of 09/10. He did a decent job, scoring five goals in fifteen matches before his time on Tyneside was cut short due to injury. The highlight of his spell was scoring two early goals in a fine 3-0 win at home to Swansea.

He’d previously played for West Ham, scoring forty-seven goals in one hundred and forty-two appearances over a four year period.

Callum Wilson will be hoping to get one over his former employers this weekend when playing against the Toon for West Ham. He signed for the Hammers over the summer having spent five seasons at Newcastle and scoring forty-seven league goals. When fit, Wilson was a number nine worthy of the shirt, scoring a number of important goals to help us qualify for the Champions League, his eighteen strikes of 22/23 made him our top scorer for the season as we finished fourth. Unfortunately, injuries dogged his time at the Toon but fans will fondly remember his time at St James’ Park and he should get a warm reception from those travelling this weekend providing he behaves himself and doesn’t find the net!

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 2-0 League Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur:

“Really pleased because I think when you make the changes we did you hope to see a performance that’s in line with our identity and our expectations.I thought the pressing early on in the game and general attitude of the players was very good. I think with the way we work we like to think regardless of the changes we make, they deliver a Newcastle performance in line with our expectations. It’s most important that our attitude is right from minute one and the will to win that you need and we had. Individually I thought there were some really good performances, collectively we were strong.”

Nuno Espirito Santo after a 2-1 loss away at Leeds:

“We started the game very bad. Very bad in the way we approach our defensive situation in the box. We allow the contact, we allow the second shot on target. Then comes a corner. It’s a goal from a corner, something that we slightly improved in the previous game, but they punished us again. Commitment, focus and responsibility is all that we want from our players.”

As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online go HERE.

This is a golden opportunity for Newcastle to win their first PL away match of the season and continue to climb the Premier League table and I’ll be desperately disappointed if we don’t take it. The Hammers are looking very unsettled at the moment and could already be staring at a long, hard slog against relegation. Newcastle are in good form and I fancy that to continue with another win.