West Ham United were delighted to record an important win against Newcastle United, their first win in front of home fans since February. The encounter, played at the London Stadium, was a real demonstration of how West Ham recovered excellently after going behind within the first minutes of the match. Tomas Soucek’s late strike completed the 3-1 victory, providing a shot in the arm for a beleaguered squad and fan base.
As the match opened featuring Newcastle scoring first, West Ham showed their character and fight immediately. Lucas Paqueta brought the Hammers back level with a spectacular effort from distance that nestled in the bottom corner past Newcastle’s ‘keeper Nick Pope at his near post. As the game progressed, West Ham became more aggressive on the attack. They forced Newcastle’s Sven Botman into scoring an own goal just before halftime, sealing their turnaround.
Match Highlights
West Ham’s performance in the final against Fiorentina undoubtedly represented the players’ commitment and fight. Areola was in goal and their defenders were Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Todibo, and Diouf creating one of the strongest backlines. The midfield in particular was very strong, featuring the likes of Potts, Fernandes, Summerville, and Paqueta, with Bowen and Wilson up top.
West Ham Brazilian Lucas Paqueta was an iconic presence throughout. Not only did he score the equalizer, but he received Player of the Match honors. His dazzling show wrung out the moisture to lift the West Ham comeback from going down to a Robin van Persie opener. The tenor of that raucous London crowd turned significantly after their team showed the appetite and grit to outlast the Pigeons in a bruising contest.
Newcastle’s Starting XI featured goalkeeper Pope along with defenders Krafth, Thiaw, Botman, and Burn. Bruno, Tonali and Joelinton formed the midfield, while Gordon, Murphy and Woltemade led the attack. Newcastle shot out the gate, scoring quickly and dominating Arsenal’s performance in the first half. Yet, they fell off a cliff and only recorded a single shot on goal during the second half.
A Turnaround Moment
The importance of this victory for West Ham cannot be overstated. It was their second victory of the campaign and first under new boss Nuno Espirito Santo. After a long stretch of nine home games without a win dating back to February 27, this match was a welcome change for both players and fans alike.
The victory wasn’t just about relief but rather a sense of belief moving forward for West Ham. We were impressed by their spirit — from an ability to work as a team to mental toughness, as they battled back from difficulty.
“For me it’s the moment of the game, the way we reacted immediately when things were against us. It makes it easy during the week, the legs will recover faster, there will be smiles. Much easier to work, much easier to keep improving. It’s a little step but very important.” – Nuno Espirito Santo
In stark contrast to West Ham’s triumph, Newcastle faced disappointment as they extended their winless streak to eight consecutive away games in the Premier League. This is the longest run of their kind since a nine-game stretch around the start of the 2021/22 campaign. In the aftermath of the game, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe was left to ponder what went wrong.
Newcastle’s Struggles Continue
Howe stressed that their uninspired performance was due to a failure to mentally prepare. He explained it was about pipeline operations and maintenance culture, not tactical or technical problems. He pointed out that all the ingredients that were a part of their past successes weren’t present in this game.
“The dynamism wasn’t there today. The physicality, the energy was missing in our performance. The difficult thing to take from that is that we rotated the team in midweek a lot for freshness in the players. That didn’t seem to be there. It was a poor performance. We try to be open and honest with how we play and we weren’t ourselves.” – Eddie Howe
Although this loss downed their hopes of progression in this competition, Newcastle currently sits 13th in the Premier League standings. Their disappointing displays led to doubts over the relationships in the squad and players’ motivation as they aim to rediscover their best ahead of a busy run of fixtures.
Despite this defeat, Newcastle remains in 13th place in the Premier League table. Their performance raised questions about team dynamics and individual contributions as they seek to regain form in upcoming fixtures.
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