Head Coach Graham Potter has named an unchanged West Ham United starting XI for the third Premier League game in a row for Monday’s home fixture with Newcastle United.
Potter has kept faith with the same players who started the 1-0 victory at Arsenal on 22 February and 2-0 home win over Leicester City on 27 February, and victory tonight would make it three straight in the top-flight for the first time since December 2023.
A third straight Premier League win tonight would take West Ham up three places to 13th in the table, above Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Everton. The Hammers travel to Goodison Park for the final time to face David Moyes’ Toffees on Saturday.
Before that, the Irons host Eddie Howe’s Newcastle at London Stadium, seeking to complete a first top-flight ‘double’ of 2024/25.
Alphonse Areola will start in goal behind a back five of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Jean-Clair Todibo, Maximilian Kilman, Aaron Cresswell and teenager Ollie Scarles.
Cresswell’s appearance is his 14th for West Ham against Newcastle. He scored the winner in his first, when Sam Allardyce’s side edged out Alan Pardew’s Magpies at the Boleyn Ground in November 2014.
At the other end of the experience scale, left wing-back Scarles makes his third consecutive Premier League start and 12th first-team appearance for the Club.
On the other flank, right wing-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka opened his West Ham account with a goal in the 2-0 victory in the reverse fixture at St James’ Park in late November last year.
The midfield will be anchored by Edson Álvarez, with the Mexican playing alongside Tomáš Souček and James Ward-Prowse.
Souček marked his 30th birthday with a goal in the home victory over Leicester eleven days ago and also netted in the aforementioned win at Newcastle in November. He has four goals in ten career appearances against the Magpies.
Captain Jarrod Bowen, who was linked with a move to St James’ Park before joining West Ham in January 2020, has a goal and five assists in his own ten career games against Newcastle.
Fellow forward Mohammed Kudus is another West Ham player who scored his first Premier League goal in Claret and Blue against Newcastle, having blasted in a late leveller to secure a 2-2 draw in this fixture last season.
Lucas Paquetá returns from injury to take his place on the substitutes’ bench, with Andy Irving the player left out of the matchday squad.
The Brazilian is joined there by Łukasz Fabiański, defenders Emerson and Dinos Mavropanos, midfielders Guido Rodríguez and Carlos Soler, and strikers Ferguson and Danny Ings.
Michail Antonio, Vladimír Coufal, Niclas Füllkrug and Crysencio Summerville are all unavailable through injury.
Newcastle boss Howe is without Sven Botman and Lewis Hall, who are both injured, while England winger Anthony Gordon is suspended.
West Ham United: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Kilman, Cresswell, Scarles, Álvarez, Souček, Ward-Prowse, Bowen ©, Kudus
Subs: Fabiański (GK), Emerson, Mavropanos, Rodríguez, Soler, Paquetá, Luis Guilherme, Ings, Ferguson
Newcastle United: Pope, Trippier, Schär, Burn, Livramento, Bruno Guimarães ©, Tonali, Joelinton, Murphy, Barnes, Isak
Subs: Dúbravka (GK), Krafth, Targett, Longstaff, Miley, Willock, Osula, Wilson, Neave
Referee: Michael Salisbury
