A West Ham United team inspired by Lucas Paqueta (£5.9m) came from behind to beat Newcastle United on Sunday, marking the Hammers’ first win of the Nuno Espirito Santo era.
Here are our scout notes from the London Stadium.
PAQUETA INSPIRES
West Ham picked up their first home win in the Premier League since February, with number 10 Lucas Paqueta playing a central role.
The Brazilian scored the equalizer from outside the penalty area and delivered a brilliant performance that matched it perfectly Freddie Potts (£4.4 million) and Manuel Fernandes (£5.5 million) in the middle of the park.
The only downside: Paqueta received his fourth yellow card of the season and is now only one yellow card away from a suspension.
As for West Ham, Nuno’s decision to switch to a back four and recall Callum Wilson (£5.8m) has certainly paid off.
Defensively robust and dangerous on the counter-attack, the kind of performance many expected when Nuno was first appointed.
Potts, meanwhile, had a goal disallowed for offside, grabbed five of West Ham’s seven corners and almost reached the defensive contribution threshold (DefCon) in his first Premier League start, earning praise from his manager:
‘I think Freddy [Potts] and Mateus [Fernandes] played a good game. The idea was to try and control the middle against Newcastle because they’ve got Bruno, they’ve got Joelinton, they’ve got some quality players. If you let them play freely they will push you against the road, so the realization that you had to work really hard was good and the young boys did it. It was important to see that we were suffering, but not giving in. We were resilient without the ball, realizing that it is difficult to beat us when we are organised. So it’s a small step in the direction we needed to improve.” – Nuno Espirito Santo
Above: West Ham’s average position map against Newcastle, featuring midfield trio Fernandes (No. 18), Potts (32) and Paqueta (10)
Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.3m) also impressed at right-back, playing with real intensity and providing the assist Sven Botman‘s (£4.9m) unfortunate own goal.
He also ensured that DefCon achieved a total of seven points.
BOWEN ACCIDENT
There was frustration before Jarrod Bowen (£7.8m) owners on Sunday however.
Offensive results somehow eluded him, as he hit the post with a drilled shot and a penalty was overturned by VAR, which we should note was the correct decision.
He was also denied a late assist.
At first glance it appeared that Bowen’s attempt had been saved by Nick Pope (£5.2 million), and Touba (£5.7m) had only shot on the rebound. That would have earned Bowen a Fantasy assist.
However, Opta decided yes two shots from a sliding Soucek; the first to be saved by Pope, before the Czech bundled it over the line. So no assist for Bowen.
Bowen certainly seemed in the mood on Sunday, with four shots and two chances created, followed by a favorable home game against Burnley.
COURTS AT GORDON + WOLTEMAD
Newcastle led early through one Jacob Murphy (£6.1 million) goal, assisted by Bruno Guimaraes (£6.6 million).
However, the situation quickly deteriorated for Eddie Howe’s side, with the visitors sloppy in and out of possession.
It’s obviously not happy, but Howe came in instead Anthony Gordon (£7.5m) and Nick Woltemade (£7.5m) at half-time, and replaces them with Jacob Ramsey (£5.3 million) and William Osula (£5.5 million).
Emil Krafth (£4.4 million), for Kieran Trippier (£5.0 million) due to illness, also gave way to Fabian Schar (£5.4 million).
Howe explained his decision, saying:
“Yes, I was really disappointed with the first half, I mean it started so well, we scored early and we thought we could really get a grip on the game from then on. But we didn’t, we let it slip away and the longer that half went on, the more frustrated I was with our performance and we were unrecognisable, I think, in certain aspects of our game, so I made the move to bring some energy and a different dynamic to the team, a different feeling and different relationships on the pitch. I don’t think we were really great in the second half and that’s why we didn’t get back into the game.” –Eddie Howe
“…I could have put almost anyone out and I think that was a reflection of where we were in the game at that point and it’s very, very rare for me to feel like that. In fact, I don’t think that’s been the case since I’ve been manager of Newcastle so I felt the team needed a bit of a shake-up at half-time so that’s why I did what I did.” –Eddie Howe
Lewis Hall (£5.2m) was at least back on the bench after returning from injury.
However, Newcastle are now winless in eight away Premier League games after Sunday’s collapse, a run in which they have taken just four points.
Next up is a trip to Brentford in Gameweek 11, which follows a midweek UEFA Champions League match against Athletic Club.
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