Newcastle United collapse against West Ham in London

After winning two straight matches, Newcastle United were defeated by West Ham in London.

Newcastle United lined up the same way they did in their 2-0 victory against Burnley on Tuesday, but West Ham proved to be a more difficult opponent as they defeated the Magpies 2-0 in London. Newcastle struggled defensively and lacked precision when they were in front of goal. West Ham were the better team and their urgency was rewarded with three points.

First Half

The start off the match was lively as both teams did well to attack and apply pressure, but it was Declan Rice who scored a quick header for West Ham in the sixth minute off a corner kick. Newcastle reacted well after conceding the goal as Javier Manquillo linked up with Ayoze Perez down the wing, but the winger’s sharp cross for Salomon Rondon was cleared away at the last second.

The 11th minute witnessed two unfortunate injuries to Manquillo and Aaron Creswell as their heads collided during a duel for a 50/50 ball. Manquillo suffered more as he laid on the ground for a few minutes until a bandage was wrapped around his head.

The game was uneventful for the next several minutes until Perez scored a goal in the 27th minute for Newcastle, however, the flag rightfully went up. At this stage in the match, both sides were evenly matched as they spread the ball around well in the middle third, but failed to create any chances.

The game started to get out of hand with some dirty fouls and yellow cards, but things got worse for Newcastle in the 40th minute when West Ham were awarded a penalty. Florian Lejeune mistimed his tackle on Javier Hernandez and Mark Noble buried the penalty kick in the top left corner.

Newcastle lacked urgency and looked lazy off the ball in the first half. It was one of their worst first half performances of the season. Weak defending in the back and a lack of innovation in midfield sums up the first 45 minutes for Newcastle.

Second Half

Newcastle began the second half with a tactical change as Mohamed Diame replaced Sean Longstaff coming out of the tunnel at halftime. The Magpies came close to pulling one back in the 47th minute after Perez dribbled into the box, but curled his shot wide.

Newcastle had another decent look at goal in the 57th minute when Rondon shot the ball on target, but the ball was aimed directly at Lukasz Fabianski. West Ham almost punished Newcastle once more a minute later when Hernandez received a good cross from the wing, but the Mexican striker missed the target.

Newcastle started to wake up in midfield and they made some good runs to deliver some decent crosses that ended up earning three corner kicks, but West Ham defended them well. Miguel Almiron finally got more touches on the ball and he did well to dribble the ball out of danger and completed some passes to Rondon as Newcastle tried to get on the score sheet.

Rondon came close to scoring in the 81st minute when Christian Atsu, who replaced Isaac Hayden, gave him a wonderful ball, but his shot five feet away from goal was blocked by a defender. Seven minutes later, it was Rondon once more who almost scored, but his free-kick bounced off the post. Overall, Newcastle took 14 shots, but only two were on target. The Magpies had some good looks at goal, but they failed to score and failed to take any points in London.