West Ham United and Newcastle United meet at the London Stadium in the opening round of Premier League fixtures on Saturday night.
Both teams finished last season in the bottom half of the division and will be looking to kick off the 2020-21 campaign in winning style.
Match preview
Even by West Ham's standards, taking on the mantle of 'crisis club' before the season has even started takes quite some doing.
With a fans' protest planned for Saturday's match, though, it looks like it may be another season of hostility in East London.
Supporters are upset at the unpopular owners' decision to cash in on youngster Grady Diangana to West Bromwich Albion, with captain Mark Noble among those to hit out.
Tomas Soucek being signed permanently represents the Hammers' only incoming activity since finishing 16th last season, five points above the relegation zone.
The side got off to a slow start last season, and that tends to be a theme for them in many ways - they have lost their opening league match in the last four seasons.
Not since Wimbledon between 1986 and 1990 has a team lost their opening top-flight game five years running, with West Ham shipping at least four goals in three of those matches.
David Moyes's men have been pretty busy since the end of last season - compared to most of their Premier League rivals, at least - having played four friendlies.
The first three of those ended in victory before they fell to a 5-3 loss at the hands of freshly-relegated Bournemouth last weekend in their final summer outing.
Newcastle's shortened pre-season campaign also ended in defeat, the Magpies losing 1-0 against Stoke City. That made it back-to-back losses following a 5-1 defeat to Middlesbrough.
It has been a summer dominated by takeover talk as far as the North-East outfit are concerned - some things never change - but Mike Ashley now seems certain to stick around for another year.
The good news for Newcastle's disgruntled fans is that Ashley has splashed the cash, spending a combined £35m to sign Callum Wilson and Jamal Lewis this week.
Ryan Fraser has also arrived from Bournemouth on a free which, combined with no first-team stars moving on, means that Steve Bruce's squad will be stronger this time around.
Kicking off this new season with victory will now be the target for Newcastle, who have won nine Premier League games away to West Ham - only versus Tottenham Hotspur (10) do they have a better return.
West Ham United pre-season form: WWWL
Newcastle United pre-season form: WWLL
Team News
Manuel Lanzini is West Ham's only injury doubt for Saturday, with Moyes - the favourite to be the first Premier League boss sacked - otherwise having a full group to choose from.
After impressing towards the end of last season, Ben Johnson is competing with Ryan Fredericks for a starting spot at right-back.
Elsewhere, Michail Antonio scored eight goals in seven games to see out 2019-20 and, in the absence of any strikers being signed, will likely lead the line this weekend.
As for Newcastle, they have Wilson - the scorer of 22 top-flight goals in his last two seasons with Bournemouth - to spearhead their attack.
Fellow newbie Fraser is not yet fit, though, so Miguel Almiron and Allan Saint-Maximin should start in the wide positions.
Matt Ritchie is carrying an injury and Fabian Schar is also doubtful, while first-choice keeper Martin Dubravka is definitely out and will be replaced in goal by Karl Darlow.
West Ham United possible starting lineup:
Fabianski; Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Noble, Fornals; Antonio
Newcastle United possible starting lineup:
Darlow; Manquillo, Lascelles, Fernandez, Lewis; Almiron, Shelvey, Hayden, Longstaff, Saint-Maximin; Wilson
We say: West Ham United 1-1 Newcastle United
Between them, West Ham boss Moyes (eight) and Newcastle counterpart Bruce (five) have lost more Premier League games on matchday one (13) than the other 18 current managers in the competition combined (11).
Both teams will be targeting all three points from this tough-to-call contest, but we can see the spoils being shared at the London Stadium.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 1.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Over 1.5:dataVideo prediction
Watch the Sports Mole Football Shorts prediction for this game below:
body check tags ::
Previews by email
