West Ham Untied boss David Moyes is wary of the quality Newcastle United's Bruno Guimaraes possesses ahead of a crunch clash at the London Stadium. The Brazilian will line-up against his close friend and former teammate Lucas Paqueta this weekend for the first time since the pair left Lyon.
Guimaraes was absent from the 1-1 draw between the two sides at St. James' Park earlier in the season, serving the first of a three game suspension following a straight red against Southampton in the Carabao Cup semi-final. Paqueta was on target for the Hammers scoring an equaliser midway through the first-half.
The Hammers playmaker was linked with a move to St James' Park last summer and has started to find his groove after taking time to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League.
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Moyes told football.london: "He [Paqueta] is really good player, but Newcastle have a really good player in Guimaraes as well. It's not just his ability, we're still looking for me creativity and hopefully, we can add more chances created to his game.
"They've got Almiron and Joelinton and their form, people were talking about us a year ago. You have to try and keep it and build on it."
Newcastle have bounced back from a difficult spell without a win and re-established their top-four credentials with three wins on the bounce, including an important win over Manchester United. Moyes was quick to play down any comparisons between the two sides and was undecided on whether it was a good time to play the Magpies.
"Probably this time last year, we maybe dropped out of the Champions League places," he said. "They didn't have European games and different scenarios like we've had.
"I don't know, it's a difficult thing to work out, when it's a good time or bad time to play them. I don't think we've had a spell where they've fallen off. We've got to be ready and we're in for a big game."
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