Newcastle United’s Bruno Guimaraes set for Lucas Paqueta reunion as David Moyes praises Brazilian duo

The pair have a long-standing friendship, one that blossomed whilst at Lyon together with Paqueta even pictured visiting Guimaraes in the summer before he sealed his move to the London Stadium. However, the pair are yet to face-off against each other because, after receiving a red card during their Carabao Cup semi-final with Southampton, Guimaraes was suspended for the clash at St James’ Park in February - a game that saw Paqueta cancel out Callum Wilson’s early strike to earn the Hammers a point.

This time around though, the Brazilian duo look set to battle it out for midfield supremacy at the London Stadium - adding an extra dynamic to a very important game at both ends of the Premier League table. David Moyes, who watched his side defeat fellow strugglers Southampton at the weekend, praised both Paqueta and Guimaraes ahead of tonight’s game and has challenged his player to shine against the Magpies.

Moyes said: “Paquetá is a really good player and Newcastle have a really good player in Guimarães.

“Lucas has improved as he’s gone along, it takes a bit of time for some people. We’re still looking for a bit more creativity and hopefully we can add that to his already good performances.”

When asked about Newcastle’s strengths, Moyes responded: “Bruno Guimarães is one player I mentioned, but there are lots of players.

“Almirón, Joelinton, the performance of the two centre halves with the clean sheets they’ve kept, there are lots of good things about them. People talked about us in that way this time last year, it’s good, you have to build on it and it’ll be interesting to see how they go on.”

A fourth win at the London Stadium would make it four Premier League wins on the spin and keep Newcastle in 3rd place, above both Spurs and Manchester United.

One man they may be reliant on in the capital is Wilson who could extend his fantastic goal scoring record against the Hammers. In 12 career appearances against West Ham for both Bournemouth and Newcastle, Wilson has netted ten times, including on his debut for the Magpies back in 2020.