West Ham clinched their first home win since February as they recovered from a goal down to beat Newcastle 3-1.
The home fans looked set for another long afternoon when Jacob Murphy fired in Newcastle’s fourth-minute opener from outside the box, 26 seconds after Jarrod Bowen had struck the post at the other end, but Nuno Espirito Santo’s side staged a fightback.
Lucas Paqueta brought them level when his long-range effort beat Nick Pope at his near post and the turnaround was completed when Sven Botman inadvertently diverted Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s low cross into his own net in first-half stoppage time.
Substitute Tomas Soucek added the third in the final seconds of the game when he bundled home from close range after Bowen’s diagonal shot had squirmed through Pope’s legs.
The victory is only West Ham’s second of the season and their first under Nuno. It comes after a run of nine home games without a win dating back to a 2-0 victory over Leicester on February 27.
Newcastle faded badly after their early opener and only mustered one shot on target in a flat second-half display despite Eddie Howe making three substitutions at the interval.
Earlier, they had needed Pope to be on his toes to save a Paqueta free-kick and a Max Kilman header but the Newcastle goalkeeper should have done better for the equaliser, with West Ham going on to lift the mood around the club with a deserved victory.
The result puts them above Nottingham Forest, into 18th place, and only three points from safety. Newcastle remain 13th, the defeat meaning they are now winless in eight Premier League away games.
Some West Ham fans stayed behind afterwards to stage a pre-planned sit-in protest against the club’s owners but overall the mood was positive as they celebrated an overdue win at the London Stadium.
WATCH: All the goals
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Jacob Murphy fired Newcastle ahead inside four minutes
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Lucas Paqueta’s long-range stunner levelled the scores
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Sven Botman’s own goal completed the West Ham turnaround
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Tomas Soucek added the third goal from close range
Nuno thanks fans for support
West Ham head coach Nuno Espirito Santo said: “Very happy. People should be proud the way we did it.
“We started well. They scored but the reaction of the boys was good.
“For me it’s the moment of the game, the way we reacted immediately when things were against us.
“It makes it easy during the week, the legs will recover faster, there will be smiles. Much easier to work, much easier to keep improving. It’s a little step but very important.
“We will be happy to return to London stadium next week and that is huge for us.
“Our idea is to try and give something to our fans and today we gave them a small thing and the way they gave back to us was huge.
“In the end the noise in the London Stadium was amazing. We cannot thank the fans enough. We will try to transform the London Stadium into a very difficult stadium for our opponents.”
Howe: We were unrecognisable
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said in his press conference: “The dynamism wasn’t there today. The physicality, the energy was missing in our performance.
“The difficult thing to take from that is that we rotated the team in midweek a lot for freshness in the players. That didn’t seem to be there.
“It was a poor performance. We try to be open and honest with how we play and we weren’t ourselves.
“That’s the worst we’ve played during that run of away games we haven’t won. Certainly, a period of reflection for us is important.
“I was disappointed in the first half. The longer half went on, the more frustrated I was.
“We were unrecognisable in certain aspects of our performance. I don’t think it looked like a Newcastle team we’ve seen in recent seasons. The body language, the collective spirit on the pitch, lots of little things that contribute to our performances weren’t there.
“I don’t think it was tactical or technical, it was just us not being where we needed to be mentally.”
Analysis: Potts makes big impression
Sky Sports’ Lewis Jones at the London Stadium:
All that was missing for Freddie Potts on his first Premier League start for West Ham was the goal.
And he was just a Tomas Soucek toenail away from that after his close-range finish was ruled out for the tightest offside calls by VAR.
It was otherwise the perfect full debut by the West Ham academy product who is the son of former West Ham defender Steve Potts. He’s 22 years old, so has had to be patient for his opportunity, but impressed at Portsmouth last season on loan – a spell that has stood him in good stead for the demands of the Premier League based on this showing.
He was intelligent in possession but most importantly screened his backline with good authority and competed with good authority in the duels – something which has been lacking all season in this West Ham team.
The Hammers have “one of their own” to cheer for now. He made a big difference.
Analysis: Newcastle’s worrying display
Sky Sports’ Nick Wright at the London Stadium:
Eddie Howe’s half-time changes told a tale. His triple substitution was intended to spark his side into life after a poor first half but there was little improvement. In fact, they were arguably worse, not mustering a second-half shot on target until the 90th minute.
The lack of intensity and attacking threat felt very un-Newcastle-like and Howe admitted he thought the same afterwards. “Unrecognisable,” was his verdict. And that despite rotating his side for the midweek Carabao Cup tie against Tottenham.
The idea was to keep his players fresh but they looked anything but at the London Stadium, a ground where so many sides have profited in recent months. Newcastle never really looked like doing that. Even when they were leading, West Ham looked hungrier and more dangerous. They got what they deserved. So did Newcastle.
West Ham’s overdue fightback – Opta stats
- West Ham won a Premier League game in which they trailed for the first time since a 3-1 victory over Luton Town in their final home game of the 2023/24 campaign, ending a run of 32 league games without coming from behind to win three points.
- 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. Before today, only bottom of the Football League Newport County were on a longer winless run at their home stadium in England’s top four tiers.
- Newcastle have gone winless in eight consecutive Premier League away games for the first time since a nine-game run from the start of the 2021/22 season, with Eddie Howe only overseeing the final three matches of that streak.
