West Ham are now nearly as close to Manchester City as the relegation zone. Our thanks go to Newcastle for ripping up the form guide.
No one saw this coming. After Jamie Carragher claimed Julen Lopetegui’s start “couldn’t have been much worse” amid reports he had two games to save his jobTheo Walcott point-blank refused David Jones’ request for some West Ham positivity as the teams came out at St James’ Park, such was his confidence in a comfortable Newcastle victory.
Lopetegui will have feared the worst when Alexander Isak – buoyed by seeing his name in 100 foot tall Swedish blue and yellow in one stand and an ‘Alexander the Great’ tifo at the opposite end of the stadium at kick-off – raced beyond the West Ham defence to latch onto a beautiful Lewis Hall through ball to dink Lukasz Fabianski.
The marginal offside was a saving grace but that moment looked sure to be a harbinger for multiple chances and goals for Newcastle via the same route, with the Hammers defenders playing as though it was against the rules for opposition players to run behind them, such was their confusion at Isak, Anthony Gordon and Joe Willock charging into that space at will.
Even after Tomas Soucek opened the scoring for West Ham from Crycensio Summerville’s corner in the tenth minute, thoughts of the travelling fans giving it the ‘Oles’ towards the end of the game would have been met with scoffs, with Lopetegui’s side offering nothing up to that point to suggest Soucek’s goal was going to be anything more than a consolation opener, if such things existed.
It wasn’t until Aaron Wan-Bissaka scored soon after half-time, finishing beyond Nick Pope from a tight angle after he was found on the underlap by Jarrod Bowen, that anyone seemed to consider that West Ham might actually win this game.
Newcastle hadn’t offered a huge amount in response, certainly not as much as Eddie Howe and the fans would have hoped on the back of wins over Chelsea, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest ahead of the international break.
Anthony Gordon really should have scored after Jean-Clair Todibo made a mess of a clearance and Isak hit a half volley just wide. But it wasn’t as though there was a barrage of opportunities or even a dominance of the ball threatening a wave of chances. It was all pretty comfortable for a West Ham side under huge pressure in a stadium which tends to bring the weaknesses in opposition teams to the fore. But that didn’t happen.
The shock at the combination of West Ham’s poise and Newcastle’s anxiety was palpable through the intonations of the commentator, who added more and more question marks to the ends of West Ham players’ names in a move just after their second goal where they popped the ball around the Newcastle box under little-to-no pressure before creating a chance.
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Newcastle fans may quite reasonably wonder whether they would have lost this game had Dan Burn been partnering Fabian Schar rather than Lloyd Kelly, who won’t want to be reminded of his first Premier League start at centre-back for the Magpies.
Michail Antonio bullied him, Soucek lost him far too easily to score the opener, and his dangled leg could hardly be considered an attempted block on Wan-Bissaka for the second.
It’s a result that means West Ham are now just three points behind Newcastle, who would have been one point off third had they won here, as everyone – other than those very irritating people who make bold predictions because if they’re right they’re a genius and if they’re wrong no one remembers because it was such a madcap bet in the first place – thought they would.
And while we’re not going full Anyone Can Beat Anyone In The Best League In The World – these teams have very similar wage bills after all – with Manchester City losing three on the spin while Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Brentford sit above Manchester United, we would suggest that as things stand, other than the team at the top and the team at the bottom (sorry, Southampton), everything looks remarkably uncertain and changeable.
The cream will probably rise to the top and in a few weeks we will no doubt have a Johnny Nic article quite reasonably pointing out the dull predictability of the Premier League with the Big Eight in the top eight and the promoted teams cut adrift from the rest.
But for now we’re thoroughly enjoying the mid-table stretching from second to 14th, with Manchester City and now West Ham – the latest surprise heroes in a fluctuating 2024/2025 season – separated by just eight points.
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