The final match of the Premier League weekend comes from Upton Park on Monday night when West Ham look to build on their excellent win at Liverpool last time out when they host Newcastle.
Overall it hasn’t been a great start to the season for either of these sides although at least West Ham have come up with a couple of eye catching road wins. Newcastle have looked very limited so far and need a confidence booster quickly.
West Ham have won at Arsenal and Liverpool already this season but home defeats to Bournemouth and Leicester will have caused some concern in their ranks. They look good going forward though and with a couple of weeks of training you would think their defence will improve.
Keeping 11 men on the pitch is proving hard for Newcastle at the minute. They’ve lost a man in two of their four matches so it is obvious they need to improve their discipline. They need to improve their output on the road too having notched just once in their last eight road games.
Andy Carroll could feature for the Hammers against his former club in this match having recovered from a long term injury. West Ham did some good business on the transfer deadline day with Victor Moses, Michail Antonio and Nikica Jelavic all signing and all being available here. Alex Song returned but he’s out injured.
Newcastle will be without Aleksandar Mitrovic as he is suspended for three matches after his red card against Arsenal. Paul Dummett is also out as he has come down injured.
West Ham haven’t been brilliant at home this season but there is something about the place under lights that makes it come alive and with a few new signings looking to showcase their talents I fancy them to get the job done here.
Newcastle are an awful away side at the minute and while Steve McClaren has got them organised and generally tough to break down they need to start offering something the other way. Swansea opened Newcastle up before Janmaat’s sending off and I’ve got to think the likes of Mauro Zarate, Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini will open them up too.
I’ve seen nothing to suggest Newcastle will win this game so I’m going to take the home side here but given that it is still early in the season I’ll take the chance to accept the decent enough price on the Asian handicap which provides some draw cover.
Back West Ham (-0.25AH) to beat Newcastle for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with BetVictor
