Newcastle United v West Ham match preview.
Posted on January 4th, 2011 | 35 Comments |
Of course, as most of you will no doubt know, West Ham had an awful start to the season with them lying rock bottom of the table for much of the season so far. Unfortunately for Newcastle however, West Ham’s manager, Avram Grant, at last seems to be pulling them through with a recent resurgence in form which has raised them out of the relegation places at last.
Whilst the Magpies may still have the advantage in terms of League position, West Ham’s recent form has been slightly better, with The Hammers managing two wins, two draws and two defeats from their last six games, two of those wins and a draw coming in the last three games. Meanwhile, Newcastle are on two wins, one draw and three defeats.
Team news:
Newcastle will still be without top goalscorer, Andy Carroll, with a thigh strain, Dan Gosling who is yet to play for the Mags and still recovering from a more major injury, Hatem Ben Arfa with a double leg break and Ryan Taylor who is also still some way from a return after a fairly serious ankle / foot injury. Finally, vintage centre back, Sol Campbell will be out with some kind of illness or other.
On the West Ham side, Jack Collison, Anthony Edgar and reserve goalkeeper, Peter Kurucz, are all out with knacked knees, Da Costa with a dodgy ankle, Magpies’ old boy and perrenial member of the injury list, Kieron Dyer, along with Thomas Hitzlsperger, are both nursing thigh injuries. Meanwhile Valon Behrami (hip) and Lars Jacobsen (heel) face a race for fitness before the encounter.
Returning to previous form for a moment, it could be said that St James’s Park is not quite the home fortress that it once was for the Magpies, having lost four games on their home turf so far, with only three home victories so far this season.
What the managers say:
Speaking in the run up to the game, Alan Pardew harked back to his days as West Ham manager, a position he enjoyed for over two years.
“I haven’t actually been back to Upton Park since I left, not to watch a game.
“I have purposely kept away because when I did return, I wanted to return with a really good team, and I hope to do that next year in the Premier League for both clubs.
“This game is important because it’s about this year and about both of us making sure we are Premier League sides.
“I think West Ham will escape the drop and I certainly hope we will, and a victory for us tomorrow would certainly go a long way towards putting a little bit of distance between us and that pressure cooker down at the bottom.”
Meanwhile, Grant said of Newcastle, and the upcoming game:
“They want to keep their momentum because they won a difficult away game, we want to too. We are concentrating on what we want to do.”
Let’s hope that Newcastle have what it takes to overcome a resurgent West ham side.
HWTL!
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1092 articles on this blog.
As this is one I fully expect us to win we’ll probably lose.
It is exactly the same as the Blackburn, Blackpool, Wigan and Stoke game.