Newcastle United vs West Ham United. Premier League.
St James' Park, NewcastleAttendance50,031.
Saturday 16 January 2016 15:09, UK
Jonjo Shelvey and Henri Saivet could make their debuts for Newcastle when West Ham visit St James' Park on Saturday.
The two sides will head into the clash with very different ambitions, as West Ham attempt to force their way into the top four and Newcastle try and climb out of the relegation zone.
Slaven Bilic will be hoping that Dimitri Payet, who scored both goals as they beat Newcastle 2-0 in September, will continue the fine form he showed in their win at Bournemouth in midweek following his return from injury.
Team news
Shelvey and Saivet are in the Newcastle squad, and they could be joined by Rolando Aarons (foot) and striker Emmanuel Riviere (knee) after both played for the club's U21s on Thursday evening.
Steven Taylor (hamstring) is back in training, but Siem de Jong will be sidelined for up to two weeks after being rushed to hospital with an eye injury suffered in training. Papiss Cisse could miss eight weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a groin injury.
Andy Carroll will miss West Ham's trip to his former club. The striker suffered a hamstring injury at Bournemouth on Tuesday night and will be out for four to six weeks, joining Manuel Lanzini and Diafra Sakho (both thigh) on the sidelines.
But Victor Moses is fit after six weeks out with a hamstring problem while Cheikhou Kouyate and Mauro Zarate have shaken off the knocks which kept them out in midweek.
Opta stats
West Ham have won just one of their last 12 Premier League trips to St James' Park (W1 D5 L6).
The Hammers have failed to score in three of their last four trips to play Newcastle in the top flight, but the Mapgies have failed to score in five of their last seven league games against West Ham.
Newcastle are winless in five league fixtures (D2 L3), their longest run since failing to win any of their opening eight fixtures this season.
West Ham are the only Premier League side yet to concede in the final five minutes of a game this season, while no side have scored more than them in this period (5 - level with Man City and Crystal Palace).
All eight of Georginio Wijnaldum's goals for Newcastle have been scored at St James' Park.
Merson's prediction
At the moment Newcastle are just not getting the rub of the green. To score three goals and not win at home is disappointing but they are still right in the fight to stay up. I know Sunderland have gone above them but with Swansea getting beat, Newcastle have an excellent chance of staying up.
However, I really like what Bilic is doing at West Ham. Newcastle have to stop Payet. If they can find a way to stop him then they will get a result, but if they don't then he will rip them to absolute shreds.
Newcastle are playing well but the problem for them is that I can't see them stopping Payet. He's up there with Mesut Ozil in my opinion and he's 100 per cent the signing of the summer. For West Ham to get him was brilliant. There has got to be a lot of big clubs turning around to their scouting system and asking 'how's he not playing for us'. I'm going for West Ham to keep their run going with a 2-1 away win and Enner Valencia scoring the first goal.
PAUL PREDICTS: 1-2
Betting
Newcastle are 11/8 with Sky Bet with West Ham 19/10 and the draw trading at 12/5. There have been three goals or more in one of the teams' last seven meetings so under 2.5 goals should appeal at 8/11.
Wijnaldum to open the scoring for the Toon is 15/2, while Payet, who netted in the midweek win at Bournemouth, to score anytime for the visitors is 5/2.
