Overview
Before round 36, Newcastle still has a risk of relegation, although the possibility is not high. However, the draw at Nottingham Forest's stadium was enough for the "Magpies" to officially stay in the Premier League and avoid the disastrous scenario of having to play in the Championship.
However, Newcastle's familiar problems continued to appear at the City Ground. Harvey Barnes opened the scoring for the away team, but Elliot Anderson scored to equalize 1-1 for Nottingham Forest.
This result means Newcastle has dropped 27 points from leading the Premier League in the 2025-2026 season - the worst record in the league.
No team has lost more points than Newcastle after taking the lead. Notably, if they maintain their advantage in those matches, Eddie Howe's team can even compete for the championship. Instead, they are currently only ranked 13th in the standings.
Not only losing the advantage often, Newcastle is also the team with the fewest points from being led, with only 3 points. They also conceded 20 goals in the last 15 minutes of the match - the worst statistic in the league this season.
However, winning 4 points in the last 2 matches is still a positive sign compared to the poor performance series before. In particular, Newcastle's attack still maintains a fairly stable performance at home when scoring at least 2 goals in 13/18 matches in the Premier League this season, including 4 in the last 6 matches.
On the opposite side, West Ham entered the match with a lot of pressure after the 0-1 defeat to Arsenal. Nuno Espirito Santo's team continued to cause controversy when Callum Wilson's late equalizer was disallowed by VAR due to Pablo's fault with goalkeeper David Raya.
The defeat to Arsenal caused West Ham to drop to 18th place and be 2 points behind Tottenham. Therefore, the London team is almost forced to beat Newcastle to nurture hopes of improving their ranking before the final round.
West Ham's away form also brings many concerns. They have gone through 3 consecutive matches without scoring away from home in the Premier League and are facing the risk of re-establishing a 4-match goalless streak for the first time since May 2015.
However, West Ham still has reason to be confident when they once beat Newcastle 2-0 at St James' Park last season, before continuing to defeat the opponent 3-1 at home in November. If they continue to win, they will complete a double against Newcastle for the third time in Premier League history.
Personnel situation
Anthony Gordon's continued absence from Newcastle's starting lineup has become a noteworthy topic after the most recent round. Eddie Howe's "towards the future" statements further fuel speculation that the English winger may continue to be on the bench in the match against West Ham.
Gordon is currently said to have reached a preliminary agreement with Bayern Munich, in the context that his future at St James' Park is being questioned.
On West Ham's side, Nuno Espirito Santo is unlikely to make too many personnel changes after his positive performance against Arsenal. However, the away team is still missing Adama Traore due to injury.
Expected lineup:
Newcastle: Pope, Hall, Thiaw, Botman, Burn, Tonali, Guimaraes, Barnes, Woltemade, Ramsey, Osula.
West Ham: Hermansen, Todibo, Disasi, Mavropanos, Wan-Bissaka, Soucek, Fernandes, Diouf, Bowen, Summerville, Castellanos.
The match between Newcastle and West Ham takes place at 11:30 p.m. on May 17 (Vietnam time).
