This weekend’s Premier League action is mouth-watering. Sky Sports are billing Super Sunday as derby day as they’re showing the North and West London derbies and the Merseyside derby, however, on Saturday there’s a cracking 3 o’clock kick off between Newcastle and West Ham as Rafa Benitez and Manuel Pellegrini go head to head, and we’re previewing that match-up here.
MANUEL PELLEGRINI
Pellegrini was appointed by David Sullivan and David Gold over the summer and at the time The Hammers received a lot of plaudits for bringing in the Chilean gaffer. It helped that the ex-Manchester City boss was also given a war chest containing around £90 million, and Pellegrini splashed that out pretty quickly, with Issa Diop and Felipe Anderson coming in as his marquee signings in a busy summer for The Irons.
However, his new faces failed to make an instant impact and the Hammers found themselves bottom of the table, losing their opening four games. It’s since improved at The London Stadium and the club now sit 14th and have an identical record to their hosts for Saturday, below them on goal difference alone. This clash will give the Chilean another opportunity to show that he’s getting things right at his new club and a win would do him wonders as he aims to kick on and strive for a top ten finish.
TT GRADE: B
RAFA BENITEZ
Mike Ashley’s Spanish gaffer just does it time and time again when he’s in England. Whether it’s winning the Champions League with Liverpool, the Europa League at Chelsea or the Championship with Newcastle United, the Spaniard just delivers. His time in the Northeast, though, has certainly been up and down, with a number of lows to match his obvious highs, however, after a shocking start to life this season he’s steadied the ship with three straight wins.
If the Magpies get another win to make it four from four then it will just highlight how good Benitez really is. The ex-Real Madrid man has been performing miracles ever since he took the job at St James Park and the fact that he’s had almost no money to do it with as a result of having Mike Ashley as his boss just shows how impressive a job he’s doing. The Magpies will need to invest at some point, though, and can’t rely on Rafa to consistently find them bargains and perform miracles, even if he does mastermind another win on Saturday.
TT GRADE: A+
TT VERDICT
Whilst Pellegrini has made a promising start to life at The London Stadium and looks to be getting things under control, it’s Rafa Benitez who is outshining the Chilean. Benitez’s ability to play the transfer market, get results against the odds and carry this poor Newcastle side to winning the Championship, a 10th place Premier League finish and then get them out of the bottom three with nine points out of nine means he simply has to win this battle.
