West Ham completed a league double over Newcastle as they beat the Magpies 2-0 at the London Stadium to climb to 9th in the league table. An early Declan Rice header and a penalty from Mark Noble were enough for the Hammers to see off the Magpies as they celebrated the inauguration of the Billy Bonds stand with a win over Rafa Benitez’s men.

Let’s take a look at the major talking points from this game.

League double over Newcastle for the first time in 20 years

This is the first time since the 1998/99 season that the Hammers have completed a Premier League double over the Magpies.

The interesting bit- Harry Redknapp’s men won 3-0 away and 2-0 at home that season, the same scorelines that Manuel Pellegrini’s men have managed this season!

Outstanding Rice

England assistant manager Steve Holland was in the stands for this game, presumably to watch the likes of Rice and rising Newcastle medio Sean Longstaff in action.

Rice put in another assured performance for the Hammers and topped it up with a goal. His defensive work was outstanding as usual, but it’s evident that the coaching staff are helping him with the attacking side of things as well- a couple of his passes around the 45th minute were very nice to watch. We didn’t get to see that side of Rice early in the season, and on this evidence, a England call up may not be too far away! Was also the official Premier League man of the Match for this game. [Read more…]

West Ham will be looking to complete a league double over Newcastle when they meet the Magpies at the London Stadium on Saturday evening. The Hammers will be facing a NUFC side that has lost just one of its last six games- a narrow 1-0 loss to Spurs last month.

The referee for this game is Chris Kavanagh, under whom Newcastle have won only one of their four top flight clashes. From the WHUFC point of view, Kavanagh has been in charge of three club games already this season- the 1-0 loss to Wolves, the 1-1 draw against Huddersfield and the 2-2 game against Brighton.

Let’s take a look at how the pundits expect this clash to pan out!

Mark Lawrenson: Lawro notes Newcastle’s excellent recent run (only one loss in last six in the league), and reckons they’re “flying at this moment”. Has predicted a 2-0 win for NUFC.

His celebrity opponent, sprinter Dina Asher-Smith has gone with a 1-1 draw.

Paul Merson: Merson says that Newcastle “have turned a corner” and play entertaining footy with three upfront. He doesn’t see them losing this game, and has predicted a 1-1 draw. [Read more…]