Newcastle United host West Ham United at St James’ Park on May 17 for their Premier League MD37 game, the last official match to be played in Tyneside until we all meet again within the walls of SJP in August.
Eddie Howe’s side enter the match after a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest, a result that confirmed their Premier League safety but didn’t quite convince fans about any late-season improvement following the triumph over Brighton the prior weekend.
Newcastle enter the weekend sitting 13th in the table
on 46 points and have taken four points from their last two matches following a run of four consecutive defeats in the EPL and five across all competitions.
However, the Magpies kept dropping points from winning positions last weekend, having now dropped 27 points (!) in such situations this season, the highest total in the league, while also conceding 20 goals in the final 15 minutes of matches.
Emil Krafth, Tino Livramento and Fabian Schar remain unavailable, while Anthony Gordon isn’t expected to play if only to preserve his health and secure a saucy transfer to Bayern at some point in the next few weeks.
Harvey Barnes is likely to earn a starting role after scoring against Nottingham Forest, while Lewis Miley is available and Joelinton will be a game-time decision.
West Ham, meanwhile, arrive in 18th place and remain in the relegation zone, two points from safety, and fighting for their collective life.
The Hammers are coming off a 1-0 loss to Arsenal last weekend and have failed to score in their last three away league matches. They enter the weekend two points behind Tottenham and they need the points, as they have a minus-20 goal difference compared to the Spurs’ minus-9, making it impossible to bridge that gap in two games.
Adama Traore is a doubt for West Ham, while Callum Wilson is expected to be involved against his former club. A draw or a loss, paired with a Spurs draw or a win, could see the Hammers virtually relegated in Tyneside, although we’d need to wait until the Spurs play their MD37 game on Tuesday.
Here are some of Howe’s Wisdom Nuggets, courtesy of NUFC.co.uk
On Sunday’s game…
“It’s massive for us. There’s no part of me that thinks any different. (It’s) the last home game of the season and it’s really, really important from our perspective that we finish the season with a positive feeling, and we show our supporters how important every game is to us. We pride ourselves on that.
“There’ll be no part of our preparation that will be any different. We’ve trained every day this week, we’ve trained hard, we’ve trained well. I’m pleased with how the players look. We’ve been competitive, and we need that competitive edge. We have to do ourselves justice first and foremost, without thinking about anyone else.”
On the fitness of Lewis Hall and Joelinton…
“Lewis is fine, he’s trained this week. We’ve got no problems with his fitness.
“We’ve got a doubt over Joelinton, who has a slight thigh problem, so we’ll assess him in the next couple of days.”
On Trippier…
“I think he’s definitely deserving of that recognition. The actual decision to come here in the first place needs to be celebrated because he’s gone from a team that was hugely successful in Spain to a team that was fighting relegation in the Premier League. Everyone said it was financially motivated initially but I can tell that it wasn’t. I think it was a host of reasons and only Kieran can discuss those, but certainly financial wasn’t one of them. (It was) the challenge of returning to the Premier League, hopefully Jason (Tindall) and I played a part in that with our relationship, and wanting to take that fight on in his career position was probably a big risk, but he took it on and I’m so pleased for him that it was rewarded because there was no guarantee that that was going to be the case.
“The team stayed up and of course then never looked back. It was strange because a lot of people forget that he got injured initially and didn’t really contribute on the pitch as he would have wanted to initially in our fight against relegation – it was more the next season where he then played an unbelievable part in our run to the Champions League where we lost, I think, four games that season. He was pivotal with the rest of the back four that were magnificent that year, with Nick Pope behind them, that transformed our defensive output.
“And that’s probably my biggest memory of him and then, along with the cup final win, where I thought he was magnificent that day – an absolutely gigantic performance, and he got the feeling of lifting the cup with Bruno (Guimarães) and Jamaal (Lascelles).”
On Hall’s nomination for the Premier League Young Player of the Season award…
“I think he’s had a really good season. He started the season, if I remember this right, recovering from his injury I think, and then proved his fitness and gained strength throughout the season.
“He had a really, really good middle part of the season, where he was very consistent, played regularly, looked physically really good in amongst the period where we were playing loads of games. He really contributed and put in some eye-catching displays. He would be a worthy winner.”
Howay!
- Date: Sunday, May 17th
- Kick-off: 17:30 BST / 12:30 EST
- Location: St. James’ Park, Newcastle (England)
For all your watching needs, check LiveSoccerTV.
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