West Ham vs Newcastle: Declan Rice and Mark Noble hand Hammers victory at the London Stadium
Re-live all the action from the London Stadium
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Your support makes all the difference.West Ham returned to winning ways after beating Newcastle United 2-0 at the London Stadium.
After losing 1-0 to Manchester City earlier in the week, the hosts responded in fashion with a comfortable and largely controlled display in front of their fans.
It took just seven minutes for Manuel Pellegrini’s side to take the lead, with Declan Rice finding the back of the net for his second goal of the season.
Mark Noble doubled the lead from the penalty spot three minutes before the break.
After the restart West Ham continued to dominate proceedings as the visitors struggled to make their presence felt, aside from a late free-kick which struck the woodwork. The result sees the Londoners move up to ninth in the table on 39 points.
Re-live the action below:
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FULL TIME SCORES
Bournemouth 0-1 Manchester City
Brighton 1-0 Huddersfield
Burnley 1-3 Crystal Palace
Manchester United 3-2 Southampton
Wolves 2-0 Cardiff City
The headlines from the 3pm action:
Manchester City return to the top of the table and pile pressure on Liverpool ahead of the Merseyside derby with a scratchy 1-0 win at Bournemouth.
Manchester United left things late and had to battle to victory over a gritty Southampton, who perhaps deserved more from a game where they could have had two first half penalties. Three goals of real quality in an excellent game of football.
We now switch our attentions to the London Stadium where West Ham and Newscastle's preparations are well underway ahead of the evening kick-off.
Half-an-hour until things gets underway...
Team News
Manuel Lanzini starts for West Ham for the first time this season after returning from serious injury.
Team News
A win in midweek for Newcastle, and Rafa Benitez names an unchanged team.
West Ham are opening the Billy Bonds Stand at the London Stadium this evening, a fitting gesture to a true legend of the club. Bonds made 799 appearance for the Irons, more than any other player in Claret and Blue.
If rumours are to be believed, Rafa Benitez was hours away from becoming West Ham manager before taking the Real Madrid job in 2015.
Benitez is one of the Premier League's most respected managers, and rightly so. He has navigated through on-filed struggles and off-field questions and taken his team clear of real relegation trouble.
Newcastle can move up to 12th with a win tonight...
Two extremely promising defensive midfielders do battle in the middle-of-the-park this evening.
Declan Rice has been in the news plenty this season for his off-field decision-making, but the 20-year-old has been remarkably consistent on the pitch and won Young Player of the Year at the London Football Awards earlier in the week. Rice seems likely to be included in Gareth Southgate.
Meanwhile, Sean Longstaff has made great strides in the North East, taking an opportunity afforded due to injury to others, showing maturity beyond his tender years and being a driving force in Newcastle's turnaround in form.
Certainly a matchup to watch...
Jonjo Shelvey spent time in West Ham's academy and is believed to be a fan of the East Londoners.
Shelvey is absent through injury tonight but out of favour anyway, with Rafa Benitez preferring Longstaff, Isaac Hayden, Ki Sung-yueng and Mohamed Diame in midfield.
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