West Ham’s 2020/21 league season started on a disappointing note as they went down 2-0 at home to Newcastle United. Jeff Hendrick and Callum Wilson were on target for Steve Bruce’s Magpies at the London Stadium. Here are our talking points from the game.
Is the Grady Diangana transfer still affecting the players?
On paper, this was a very winnable game, and given West Ham’s tough starting fixture list, it was a game David Moyes would’ve targetted for at least a point, if not all three.
The players weren’t clearly happy with the situation regarding Grady Diangana’s transfer and one wonders if it’s affected their morale. With the next set of fixtures reading Arsenal, Wolves, Leicester, Spurs, Man City and Liverpool, there is every chance the Hammers might only get their first points of the season in November!
Hammers go in the same attacking formation as they did at the end of 19/20 season
Moyes made only one change from the side that had faced Aston Villa on the final day of the 2019/20 season, with Aaron Cresswell coming in at left back for Ben Johnson. That meant a repeat of the 4-2-3-1 formation with skipper Mark Noble again effectively playing as a 10, Pablo Fornals on the left wing, Antonio alone upfront, and the troika of Anderson, Sebastien Haller and Manuel Lanzini on the bench.
Lanzini didn’t even make it off the bench while Anderson, the club’s second most expensive player, only had a minute or so of action.
Wilson torments West Ham again
He’s swapped the Vitality Stadium for St.James’ Park, but it didn’t make any difference to Callum Wilson’s wonderful form against West Ham. With his expertly taken goal here, he now boasts of 8 goals in 9 appearances against the Hammers- the most he’s scored against any side in his career! His 56th minute effort here was also his first league goal for Newcastle.
Both debutants score for Newcastle
It wasn’t only Wilson who found the back of the net- his fellow debutant Jeff Hendrick also did so, with a beaut of a strike past Fabianski in the 88th minute of the game.
xG in favour of Newcastle as well
West Ham had their chances, with Ogbonna and Fornals both hitting the woodwork, but didn’t take them and once Wilson had claimed the first, it was always going to be difficult for them to come back. The xG stats were also in favour of the Magpies (0.86-1.66 in their favour, see shots map below)
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