West Ham huge blow for Arsenal emerges in wake of triumph over Newcastle United

West Ham are celebrating a vital three points that could keep Julen Lopetegui in a job after picking up an impressive 2-0 win against Newcastle United under the lights at St James’ Park on Monday night.

Tomas Soucek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka hit the back of the net as the Hammers secured a fourth win of the top flight season. That result lifted the side to 14th in the table, level on points with AFC Bournemouth.

As the dust settles, a huge blow has emerged for West Ham in the action that unfolded during the match. In the first half, an animated Lopetegui was shown a yellow card having shouted in the face of the fourth official.

His third booking of the season, that yellow means that the Hammers’ manager will not be able to be on the sidelines for this weekend’s visit of Arsenal to the London Stadium. Speaking after the game, the 58-year-old admitted that it would be impossible to appeal the booking but that he is ‘going to try’.

He said: “I am not happy, for sure. I was thinking I had one but I had two and now it's three. The main actors are the players and will be on the pitch. It's better that they will be there for me.”

Despite the news that he would miss out on Saturday, Lopetegui remained happy with the result and assured reporters that he was not feeling the pressure of calls for the club to end his tenure. He said: “I am happy for the three points. We deserved to win.

“My life is like this [under pressure as a manager]. I am coach. We don't think about it. We think about what we can do to improve the team and there are a lot of those things.

“Fortunately we won, we have to keep doing things and trying to improve for the next challenge. Each match in the Premier League is one big challenge.”

West Ham have another potential blow for the meeting with the Gunners in news that centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo picked up a knock on Monday. The severity of that injury is not known but the Frenchman had to be replaced after 57 minutes.

Lopetegui said: “We have to assess him, he has a problem but I don't know exactly the problem.”