Newcastle United Starting XIs vs West Ham

Newcastle United travel to the capital today for another vital Premier League clash. This time, West Ham United are in the firing line.

The Hammers have had a disappointing start to the season and parted company with manager Graham Potter. They haven’t fared too much better yet under new boss Nuno Espirito Santo, but possess a wealth of Premier League quality and experience with the likes of Jarred Bowen and Lucas Paqueta in their ranks.

Newcastle are on a high after their win over Tottenham Hotspur in midweek. Eddie Howe rang the changes for that Carabao Cup game and could do the same today with belief in his squad strength high. Our writers pick their starting XI as they try to predict the Magpies manager’s thoughts.

Lee Ryder
It’s back to the bread and butter of the Premier League for Eddie Howe and his Magpies, and he has the advantage of being able to rest a few bodies in midweek for the Carabao Cup.

There will be an air of familiarity about the XI he selects at the London Stadium and I expected the big guns to be in from the start once more. I don’t think there is any need for major surgery and it’s time to go with the tried and trusted.

I’d bring back Nick Pope despite Aaron Ramsdale’s contributions the other night and it will be a back four of Kieran Trippier, Sven Botman, Malick Thiaw and Dan Burn. The usual trio in midifeld and for me it’s Jacob Murphy who gets the shout over Anthony Elanga.

Getting the game sealed off and then looking to tweak seems to be the right way to go for Howe and his backroom team ahead of Bilbao next week.

Lee’s team to face West Ham: Pope, Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Burn, Joelinton, Tonali, Bruno, Gordon, Murphy, Woltemade

Sean McCormick
Eddie Howe made eight changes vs Spurs and the best compliment you can give Newcastle is that you could not tell.

Such is the strength of Newcastle’s squad now they can afford to make changes to manage the workload of their squad but making such wholesale changes almost felt like a reset during a busy period to allow them to play their strongest available side against West Ham

And that is what I think Howe will do, given how much importance he placed on getting not only Newcastle’s first away win of their Premier League season but a second successive league win for the first time this term.

Three points against the Hammers could propel Newcastle back into the European mix and despite some impressive performances on Wednesday, I still think their strongest current XI picks themselves.