West Ham and Newcastle United both look to bounce back from VAR controversies as they meet at London Stadium.
Victory will see West Ham climb to 12th in the table on goal difference from Crystal Palace, whilst Newcastle will stay third with a win although a point could be enough if Manchester United fail to better their result.
Team News
West Ham have no fresh injury concerns to report after Sunday’s win against Southampton.
Gianluca Scamacca remains absent with a knee injury and won’t be available until late April at earliest.
Newcastle could be without Joe Willock after he suffered a hamstring injury during their win over Manchester United.
Miguel Almiron (thigh), Ryan Fraser (personal) and Emil Krafth (knee) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
West Ham host Newcastle at London Stadium in a 8pm BST kick-off on Wednesday 5 April, live on Sky Sports in UK.
Stat Attack
- West Ham have won just one of their last seven meetings against Newcastle (W1, D3, L3).
- Newcastle are unbeaten in four of their last five visits to West Ham (W3, D1, L1).
- Both teams have scored in six of their last seven league meetings.
- West Ham are yet to lose at home in 2023 across all competitions (W4, D2).
- Two of Newcastle’s last six league goals have been scored before half-time across their last three matches (W3).
Prediction
Having snatched a scrappy but largely flat win over Southampton devoid much of entertainment on Sunday, West Ham now need to step up their performance and show more flair in their attacking quality if want to stand any chance of another victory.
Newcastle though were incredibly wasteful with impatient finishing against Man Utd yet managed to clinically clinch the win with two superb second-half goals, but I would like to see them settle more in their end product and avoid rushing their chances here.
Now if the Magpies do that and can dominate this game like they did at home on Sunday then I do feel like they should get the win, yet beating West Ham’s Lukasz Fabianski will be a huge task if the Polish goalkeeper is at his best whilst Lucas Paqueta will be another threat given his energy in midfield.
Prediction: West Ham 1-2 Newcastle United
Result: West Ham 1-5 Newcastle United
It will be interesting to see how both West Ham and Newcastle bounce back from their VAR controversies in this upcoming match. With no fresh injury concerns for West Ham, they should be able to put up a strong fight, but Newcastle will need to work on their end product and finishing if they want to secure a victory. The stats suggest a close match, but I agree with the prediction of a 1-2 win for Newcastle if they can dominate the game and beat West Ham’s goalkeeper.