Nuno Espírito Santo said that his West Ham team had given their fans “something small” to cling on to with a first victory of his tenure and that he hoped a performance of grit, ability and, perhaps most importantly, belief would give them momentum in their fight against relegation.
“I’m very happy with the result and think we should be proud of the way we did it,” Nuno said after Newcastle were beaten handily.
“In the first half things went against us but we bounced back. In the second half we were against the ropes but we were resilient. We gave our fans something small, and what they gave us back was huge: the noise was amazing.”
This was the manager’s first win in his fifth attempt and the team’s first three points at home since the end of February. Such was the apathy around the ground at kick-off that the home support could barely get themselves up for jeering after they conceded the opener four minutes in. By the time a Tomas Soucek ram-raid had sealed the points in second‑half added time, however, there was both noise around the ground and a sense of hope rekindled.
In securing only their second win of the season West Ham owed much to their senior players, with Lucas Paquetá and Jarrod Bowen to the fore throughout. Paquetá scored the equaliser after a spell of prolonged first-half pressure, and was involved in the buildup to both the other goals, with the second an own goal by Sven Botman. Nuno said the Brazilian’s performance was that of “what I believe is a 10”, ie a performance of creativity and attacking intent that also involved a ton of work out of possession.
There were notable performances elsewhere on the pitch, too. Both Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Crysencio Summerville showed bravery to get on the ball and try to influence play, with Wan-Bissaka’s cross confusing Botman enough to turn it into his own net. Equally, Freddie Potts – making his first start for the club 24 years after his father, Steve, last played for the Hammers – produced 90 minutes of determination and almost a debut goal, only for the 22-year-old to be denied by an offside check by the video assistant referee.
Nuno will not get ahead of himself, despite the signs of hope across the field and a chance now to kick on next weekend with another home fixture, a six-pointer against Burnley. Win that and the Hammers will have 10 points, two fewer than Newcastle have now, with the Magpies’ season already in danger of bifurcating.
Into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup and in the Champions League top eight, Eddie Howe’s team are going well in the cup competitions. But they remain without a win away from home in the Premier League and their performance here will have been infuriating to their supporters and was certainly bewildering to Howe.
“The dynamism wasn’t there today,” the manager said. “The physicality, the energy was missing in our performance. The difficult thing to take from that is that we rotated a lot in midweek [the 2-0 Carabao Cup victory against Tottenham] for freshness. It was hugely frustrating and a poor performance. We were not ourselves today and it’s the worst we’ve played during the run we’ve had.”
Newcastle had breezed into an early lead, going up the other end after Bowen hit a post four minutes in, and finding Jacob Murphy who drilled a low shot inside Alphonse Areola’s far post.
At that point it appeared the visitors would be able to cut up the hosts at will, but Nuno suggested the turning point came soon after when West Ham were denied a penalty in the 11th minute. Bowen went down in the box after good play from Wan‑Bissaka, but after much deliberation the VAR spotted a touch on the ball from Malick Thiaw.
• West Ham picked up their first Premier League home win since February against Leicester, ending a run of nine without victory at the London Stadium (D3 L6); before Sunday, only Newport County, bottom of the Football League, (P12 D3 L9) were on a longer winless run at their home stadium in England's top four tiers than the Hammers.
• With Newcastle winning 12 points from 10 league games so far this season (W3 D3 L4), it is the poorest start to a Premier League campaign by an Eddie Howe side since 2017-18, when Bournemouth won just seven points from their opening 10 matches.
The decision seemed to rubber stamp the fates being against West Ham but, instead of buckling, Nuno’s players dug in. A succession of opportunities followed before Paquetá equalised on the half‑hour, scoring from range when Nick Pope should have turned the ball round a post.
As the second half began rounds of “Come on you Irons” started to break out around the echoey ground and from there an atmosphere built. This was helped by Newcastle slipping further away from their early dominance after Howe switched out Nick Woltemade and Anthony Gordon to no visible effect (“I could have taken anyone off”, Howe rued afterwards).
Nuno withdrew Callum Wilson for Soucek then Summerville for Kyle Walker-Peters as he shored up his side. The Czech’s positioning denied Potts his goal but Soucek turned poacher in added time to bundle home after Bowen and Paquetá had broken clear. When the whistle finally went, Nuno did not miss the opportunity to ensure his players celebrated in front of the stands.
