West Ham fans endured another frustrating weekend as they drew 1-1 with relegation threatened Newcastle in GW26. Here are our talking points from the game at the London Stadium as the Hammers ceded ground to their rivals in the race for fourth place.
Two goals in two for Dawson: The central defender hadn’t scored a goal in the league all season before his stoppage time equaliser against Leicester. He now has 2 in as many games following this opener against the Magpies.
Given that set pieces appear to be West Ham’s most likely source of goals currently , having the veteran defender among them is a nice sight for Hammers fans.
Rare Rice mistake leads to equaliser: He’s set such high standards that another short of excellent is viewed as a disappointing game for Declan Rice. A rare mistake from him allowed Joe Willock to equalise for the visitors just before half time. Newcastle probably deserved the equaliser on the balance of play, but to see it handed to them on a platter because of a West Ham mistake was disappointing. There were warning signs early in the game too- Rice was caught napping by Joelinton at an early set piece move, but fortunately for West Ham, it didn’t cost them on that occasion.
Magpies in away kit: The Magpies had been in their traditional black and white home uniform for the reverse clash on Tyneside (WHUFC also played in home kit), but wore black and gold here for their visit to the capital. According to the excellent Football Kit News site, this was the fourth time they were wearing the kit in the league, and only one of those four have resulted in a win.
Insipid attack: The Hammers were again poor in attack and offered very little going forward. Antonio appeared more on the wing than in the box, and the players appeared quite knackered and short on ideas after the interval. This is looking more and more like a genuine chance at fourth place squandered, and having to settle for 8th (or even lower) and the end of the season- Arsenal, Spurs and Wolves should overtake the Hammers in the form they are in.
Moyes vs Benrahma?: Maybe we’re reading too much into it, but both David Moyes and Said Benrahma had words to say to each other at the time of the latter’s substitution. Moyes was apparently unhappy at the time Benrahma was taking to get off the pitch.
Another WHUFC NUFC fixture with at least two goals: The recent H2H stats between West Ham and Newcastle suggested there would be goals- there’ve been at last two of them in every game dating back to 2015. This one produced two as well!
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