West Ham United travel to the North East to take on Newcastle United in the Premier League on Monday.
The Premier League clash with Newcastle is a must-not-lose for West Ham, or more specifically, for Julen Lopetegui.
The Hammers will have Mohammed Kudus and Niclas Fullkrug unavailable for selection for the clash with the Magpies, but the good news is that Edson Alvarez will return.
Lopetegui faces the sack if West Ham lose heavily to Newcastle and/or Arsenal.
It will be no surprise to see the Spaniard leave the London Stadium, but he could completely turn things around with a win over the Toon.
That will be easier said than done of course, with Newcastle currently in the midst of a rich vein of form.
And it seems like our task has just got that little bit harder.
Nightmare confirmed for West Ham ahead of Newcastle clash
The Premier League have confirmed via their official website that Craig Pawson will referee the game against Newcastle on Monday night.
The 45-year-old took charge of our home game against Arsenal back in February.
West Ham lost that game 6-0, but many Hammers fans believed Pawson was partially at fault.
The one-sided refereeing performance from Pawson helped Arsenal gain a foothold in the game, before they eventually ran riot to beat us 6-0 at the London Stadium.
He continually allowed the Arsenal players to get away with questionable challenges, whilst he blew up when any West Ham player committed the slightest offence.
His performance was so bad that it seemed like he had a genuine agenda against the Hammers.
But that’s not all – Chris Kavanagh has been named as the lead VAR official for the match as well.
When it rains it pours for West Ham
West Ham have a checkered past with the 39-year-old ref.
He has made some truly shocking decisions when officiating our games in the past.
David Moyes was absolutely fuming with Kavanagh after the Hammers were denied a late penalty against Liverpool at the London Stadium in the Premier League back in the 2022/23 season, when Thiago blatantly handled the ball inside his own box (Sky Sports).
And then Kavanagh was at it again last season, once again during a clash with Liverpool, when he steadfastly refused to award West Ham a penalty at Anfield after Jarrod Bowen was quite obviously brought down inside the box.
Then back in 2021, he made the laughably bad decision to send off Fabian Balbuena during our defeat to Chelsea at the London Stadium.
The Hammers lost 1-0 that day – a result that literally cost us qualification for the Champions League.
So, having Pawson and Kavanagh on duty for our game against Newcastle is far from ideal.
Hopefully West Ham will get a result against Newcastle on Monday, but we will undoubtedly have our work cut-out with the officials who’ve been confirmed to adjudicate the match.
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