Mark Lawrenson predicts West Ham clash v Newcastle
BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson has predicted an upset victory for Newcastle over West Ham in the Premier League this weekend.
After beating Leicester 3-2 and narrowing the gap between themselves and third place, West Ham go into this weekend’s game with a positive frame of mind.
Should the Hammers beat Newcastle they’ll go into third as the Foxes don’t play this weekend, having made the FA Cup semis.
Their superior goal difference means that a draw will not suffice for David Moyes’ men.
However, Lawrenson has gone left field with his prediction this time around and has predicted a shock Newcastle 2-0 win.
In his column on BBC Sport, he wrote, “I’m going for a bit of an upset here, partly because I think Newcastle usually pick up points in bursts and also because they also have Allan Saint-Maximin and Callum Wilson to come into their starting XI.
“West Ham have developed a bit of a habit recently of going 3-0 up and being pegged back, but they held on to beat Leicester last week and will hang on to fourth place for a while longer.
“I am going for the Hammers to lose this time but I am sure they won’t mind – I also thought they would be beaten by the Foxes and, before then Wolves, and I was wrong on both occasions.”
Third time unlucky for Lawrenson
Lawrenson seems to have something against West Ham.
As he points out, he predicted that we’d lose against Leicester and Wolves as well, but he;’s still not learned his lesson.
We’ve been known to suffer the odd shocker after a run of results.
However, this time the buzz is different surrounding this West Ham side and there’s a real feeling that we may be on to something special this season.
This is one of the games that we have to win if we are going to be serious top-four contenders.
Newcastle’s and other results around them mean that their threat of relegation is not as serious as it was a few weeks ago, giving them little to play for until the end of the season.
It’s important we capitalise on this and peg them back from the offing.
We can’t see anything but a West Ham, win and another Jesse Lingard masterclass, but maybe we’re a bit biased.
In other West Ham news, Report: Hammers handed boost in bid to sign ‘phenomenal’ 21-year-old striker