Jarrod Bowen and West Ham United have already tasted victory against Newcastle United this season.
The Hammers were really struggling earlier in the campaign, yet put Newcastle United to the sword at St James’ Park on November 25th.
West Ham beat Newcastle 2-0, as Julen Lopetegui picked up a rare win before being sacked. As for Eddie Howe’s side, they continued to showcase their inconsistency after outstanding victories against Chelsea, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest.
Now it is time for the reverse fixture, and the landscape is a bit different. West Ham are now managed by Graham Potter, while Newcastle are potentially less than a week away from ending their trophy drought.
The Carabao Cup final is Newcastle United fans’ priority right now, but Eddie Howe and his players must focus on the Premier League and the trip to the London Stadium.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Jarrod Bowen previews West Ham vs Newcastle United
If they do not, West Ham are poised to take advantage.
Ahead of Monday night’s game, Hammers captain Jarrod Bowen has delivered a warning to Newcastle United.
“We play Newcastle and are looking to complete our first Premier League ‘double’ of the season, having won 2-0 at St James’ Park before Christmas,” he told West Ham’s official website.
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“That was one of our best performances of the season and showed what we are capable of. The same can be said of our last two games against Arsenal and Leicester, when we registered deserved wins, kept valuable clean sheets and collected six points.
“We’d obviously love to make it three wins in a row on Monday night and, if we all do our jobs as well as we have done in those matches, with your support, we can do it.
“Newcastle are a strong side, with some really good individuals we’ll work hard to stop, but we have huge quality in our squad and we need to concentrate on what we have to do right, individually and collectively, to win the game.”
Eddie Howe must ignore Carabao Cup final when Newcastle face West Ham
With less than a week to go until the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, it is understandable that the Newcastle United manager will have eyes on that game. He will be considering who to name in his starting XI and how his players should approach the game.
But those thoughts must not influence the match against West Ham United on Monday night.
Howe cannot think about resting players – he must go full strength at the London Stadium. While he could rest Alexander Isak and start Callum Wilson, that decision should be avoided.
Rotating and focussing on the final would be a mistake. Newcastle need a good performance. They need momentum, while they need a result in the race for Champions League qualification. That is why Geordie Boot Boys’predicted Newcastle XI versus West Ham sees Howe go full strength.
As Bowen says, West Ham know how good they were against Newcastle earlier in the season, while they have also built up momentum of their own with back-to-back wins over Arsenal and Leicester City.
If Newcastle are not ‘at it’ or their eyes wander towards Wembley, the Hammers will take advantage.