Newcastle: Tomas Soucek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka scored as West Ham secured an impressive 2-0 win over Newcastle United in the Premier League to ease the pressure on boss Julen Lopetegui.
Newcastle entered the game on a three-match winning run, including back-to-back victories in the Premier League, but it was a previously out-of-form West Ham side who came out on top.
Newcastle started well at St James’ Park, but the West Ham burst their bubble with ten minutes on the clock when Emerson delivered a corner from the left and Soucek was left alone to nod home.
Alexander Isak went close to a leveller when he took down Bruno Guimaraes’ pass and fired wide, but West Ham stood firm to take their advantage to the break.
Then, eight minutes after the restart, Wan-Bissaka got forward down the right to double the lead, collecting Jarrod Bowen’s pass to fire home via the base of the far post.
That second goal took the wind out of Newcastle’s sails and they failed to test Lukasz Fabianski from then on, slumping to a second loss in their last three home league matches.
West Ham stay 14th in the table but are now within three points off Newcastle, who drop a place to 10th, still four points adrift of the top four.
“I don’t think anything takes me by surprise in the Premier League. Every team has qualities. I felt the goals changed the game today. I thought we were the dominant team going in at half-time, the game could have been very different if we’d have taken one of our chances in the first half,” Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said.
“We didn’t respond well to the goal in the second half. We lost a bit of confidence and became a bit ragged in the end. I’m pretty pleased with the first 60 minutes, we did open them up. Unfortunately goals will always change the perception of anybody. The last half an hour I didn’t like at all. We made bad decisions with the ball. Certainly a game we’ll rue when we watch it back,” he added.
(IANS)
