A missed opportunity to move up to sixth for Newcastle United and defeat that well and truly bursts our bubble as an out-of-form West Ham side pulled off a 2-0 win at St James’ Park.
The Hammers scored early in both halves and against the run of play on each occasion, but we wasted far too many big openings, defended awfully for their goals and were flat as a pancake in a second half the visitors totally controlled after making it 2-0.
We could’ve counted ourselves slightly unlucky in the first half, where Gordon, Isak and Willock all went close and our pressing and possession play was good. However, that lack of cutting edge cost us – as it did in last month’s home defeat to Brighton – and the second half was awful, where heads dropped, our shape was non-existent, Eddie Howe’s subs did not work at all and we never looked like scoring, failing to muster a single shot on goal in the final 45.
The result leaves us 10th in the league and with just 13 goals scored in our opening 12 games. At this stage last season, we hade more than twice that number of goals, giving Howe a challenge to not only find his best XI but that spark in the final third ahead of Saturday’s trip to Selhurst Park.
Howe made one change for this one, where Lloyd Kelly came in at centre-back for Dan Burn, who sat this one out through suspension after picking up his fifth caution of the season in our 3-1 win at Nottingham Forest last time out.
There was no Lewis Miley in the squad; not due to injury, just the result of Callum Wilson and Kieran Trippier’s long-awaited return to the bench, which looked strong with £90m duo Sandro Tonali and Harvey Barnes also waiting in reserve.
We came out the blocks quickly and almost took the lead as Isak’s dinked finish was flagged for offside, but it was the Hammers who punished us at the other end as Soucek headed in a corner after losing Kelly.
It was a frustrating first half, not just for the soft goal we conceded but our struggles in the final ball despite plenty of possession and pressing. The biggest chance fell for Gordon, who should’ve punished Todibo’s error before Fabianski smothered his close range effort, yet there were others guilty of missed chances as Willock curled wide and Isak couldn’t hit the target after bringing down a lovely ball in behind from Bruno.
Willock was wasteful and he was punished at the break, as super-sub Harvey Barnes came on. It was his heroics that helped us to a 4-3 comeback win against the Hammers earlier this year and Howe would’ve been hoping for something similar as Barnes’ introduction saw Gordon move to the right and Joelinton drop into a left-sided midfield role.
However, despite another decent start to the half, bad defending at the other end cost us again as Bruno lost a duel to best pal Lucas Paqueta before Wan-Bissaka got on the end of Bowen’s pass and fired in off the post. 2-0 and another suckerpunch of a goal to double West Ham’s lead.
We huffed and puffed after, made a host of changes – Tonali, Wilson and Murphy replaced Longstaff, Joelinton and Gordon – but barely tested Fabianski. We’d gone totally flat and would’ve conceded a third if it wasn’t for Kelly’s last-ditch block to deny Summerville.
Isak headed a decent chance wide after good work from Livramento and, after going to a 4-4-2 following Wilson’s introduction, our fit-again No.9 was denied what looked like a clear penalty after being bundled over by Mavrapanos. And that was that, as West Ham looked comfortable in the closing stages to see out a 2-0 win.
Newcastle XI: Pope – Livramento, Schar, Kelly, Hall – Longstaff, Guimaraes, Willock – Gordon, Isak, Joelinton. SUBS: Dubravka, Trippier, Targett, Tonali, Barnes, Murphy, Almiron, Osula, Wilson.
West Ham XI: Fabianski – Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Kilman, Emerson – Soler, Paquetá, Soucek – Bowen, Antonio, Summerville. SUBS: Areola, Cresswell, Coufal, Mavropanos, Guilherme, Rodríguez, Irving, Scarles, Ings.
Next up, a trip to Crystal Palace next weekend before we welcome Arne Slot’s Liverpool to St James’ Park next Wednesday.
HWTL.
Well if it wasn’t so predictably anti climatic it’d be ( gallows) funny.
Didn’t see the 1st half or first goal but I’m told Kelly was at fault and he certainly looked too far away from wan bissaka considering the lad was inside 12 yards out for the 2nd.
I saw for the first time a question posed if Gordon is another Almiron with a single purple patch season. I don’t subscribe to it but he looked poor again tonight.
He wasn’t alone and the team looked poor and predictable in the 2nd half and f’k me you can always trust this club to deflate any burgeoning hope🙄
Jonesy(Quote)
Awful performance. We just cannot buy a goal. The big names, Gordon, Isak, Barnes, Bruno … all poor. A definite penalty not given, but that doesn’t hide the poor performance. We got exactly what we deserved. Nothing. I think Hall and Tino can hold their heads reasonably high but as for the rest, … meh! Lack of quality recruiting has really hurt us. Little competition, playing them out of their natural positions, no defensive depth, not one DM on the bench when we could’ve put Alex Murphy there instead of Targett for example. Just awful. Isak needs to send Wor Flags a wedge of cash as that amazing display for him was a total waste.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Can’t agree it was an awful performance mind. I think we played well in the main – but very poor finishing. We had 2 or 3 big chances and that was before the nailed on penalty.
Isak & Gordon had the biggest chances – but I struggle to be overly critical of them coz other than Barnes – who else scores?!?!!.
Bruno, Joelinton, Tonali, Longstaff, Willock – any of the defenders 🤷🏼♂️. So the truth is we are easy to defend against coz give Isak & Gordon no space and we aren’t scoring.
We are horse **** at corners – both defending & attacking. We need to improve on those big time.
But I don’t think we played terribly imo.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Yes, you’re right Sharpy, I should’ve been a bit less critical. It was the finishing that was awful rather than the performance as a whole, as we did create some clear chances to score. Don’t know what’s going on with the scoring though, something like 12 or 13 goals in total this season. I think Haaland by himself has more than that. As you say, we are very very reliant on Gordon, Barnes and Isak for goals this season. Let’s hope Eddie can find a way to get them scoring very soon or this will be a bad season and mid table finish at best.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Gilly – I’m reluctantly coming round to the idea of selling players if PSR is going to continue to be so restrictive.
We have such a drop off in quality in the squad – if we could get close to £300m for Isak, Gordon & Bruno – that’s 6 or 7 quality players we can bring in with that money. Yes they’d need replacing themselves, but we could do that & add another 3 or 4 weeks quality players as well.
There’s no money in the rest of the squad so players like Krafth, Lascelles, Murphy keep getting contract renewals coz we can’t replace them
Sharpy17(Quote)
Why the hell Howe bought Barnes I do not know
Icedog(Quote)
Sharpy, I don’t think we’d sell all of them together. Maybe one. I’d be okay to sell Isak if we get £115mil plus for him, and as long as he goes abroad. I’ve heard rumours of Barca. We could get a very good replacement for that with change. I’d be a bit miffed if he went to Arsenal or Chelsea though.
I’d like to see Barnes and Tonali get more starts. There’s a hundred mil between them. I think we should be exploring other formations too, like a 442 perhaps.
Gilly Toon(Quote)