I don’t recall the year, but it was in the 90’s. Newcastle were in the Champions League, and ESPN had the television rights to that competition in the USA. I was freelance at the time, and with no work that day I decided to order Chinese food for lunch and just sit on my sofa in my rather small apartment and watch TV. With European parents and a dad that told me from early on that Football, real Football, was the single greatest sport on earth, there was something oddly special about that day. Special enough that I still remember the day and how I felt. To some degree, the plight of the Geordies could be seen as worse than our own. They have fallen even farther, and it’s not like Ashley is any improvement over our lot. So if misery does indeed like company, we had appropriate guests today. Unfortunately, the misery today was all ours.
For a stretch of time in our recent history, bad passes that led directly to opposition goals were almost a game to game occurrence. In the 6th minute, West Ham were the recipient of such a gift when Saivet tried to roll a pass back and Arnautovic jumped all over it. He attacked the Newcastle defense one on three, cut to his right and fired a low shot past Elliot.
West Ham 1
Newcastle 0
It didn’t take long, however, for Saivet to redeem himself when Newcastle were awarded a free kick from thirty yards out. Adrian, to be fair, gift wrapped the present by positioning himself way too far to the left. Saivet had a huge amount of empty goal to aim at, and he curled his delivery over the wall and into the bottom corner.
West Ham 1
Newcastle 1
Newcastle did more to take advantage of their equalizer than The Hammers did to pounce on their even earlier lead. In the 16th minute, Yedlin raced with the ball down the right and sent a low cross into the box. Gayle was there to one time it, but his shot went over the cross bar before Cresswell was able to scramble it away. The crowd was quiet, as if they had the distinct feeling today might be far worse than they had anticipated. West Ham’s meek reaction to the Newcastle goal was the likely reason.
West Ham won a corner in the 25th minute when an Arnautovic delivery into the box was sent over the bar by the man who was involved in everything to that point, Saivet. Cresswell sent the set piece into the box where Antonio rose above the crowd to meet the ball but his header went over the bar. While the effort was a bit disappointing, the action did level off a bit with the home side at least taking part in the attacking festivities. Moments later, Masuaku tried a long range shot that Elliot had to dive to his left to stop.
Newcastle had a good opportunity from a set piece in the 31st minute when Masuaku mishandled a ball to the right of the West Ham penalty area and fouled Ritchie. The set piece was cleared, but only as far as Diame who sent his shot over the bar. Ritchie had another golden chance minutes later when Gayle fought off Ogbonna in the box and rolled a pass to Ritchie. The Scottish international curled a shot that beat Adrian but not the post. The lumber that helped against Hull last season looked to be back. In the 39th minute, Gayle had yet another chance to put Newcastle on top with an open look at goal from 15 yards out but he missed the target and sent his shot high over the bar. Newcastle were slicing the West Ham defense apart, which was jarring to say the least after recent performances.
At that point being level at halftime felt like a bigger gift than our goal.
Halftime
West Ham 1
Newcastle 1
West Ham didn’t look like they were going to create a goal by the masses, so Arnautovic tried to create one on his own. He started just outside the Newcastle area and took on Manquillo and Clark before creating enough space to try a left footed shot. The curling effort went just wide.
Newcastle had every right to think they deserved the lead, and in the 53rd minute they got it. After a number of less than stellar clearances, Atsu nutmegged Zabaleta on the edge of the area and rolled the ball to Mo Diame who slammed it past Adrian.
West Ham 1
Newcastle 2
For a team that have rarely been awarded penalties, West Ham found themselves on the receiving end of a second spot kick in as many league games that they likely should not have been awarded. When Antonio was brought down by Clark and Mason pointed at the spot, Tony Gale immediately questioned the decision. Replays showed the foul did indeed happen just outside the box. When I saw Ayew step up to take it, I immediately had a bad feeling. Why not Arnautovic, who has enough confidence for an entire squad at the moment? Ayew’s stutter step was almost like a death knell for what was about to happen, so when Elliot stopped the penalty easily I wasn’t even a little bit surprised.
Minutes after the absurdly bad penalty, Newcastle broke after West Ham squandered a corner. Zabaleta and Cresswell got in each others way, and the ball ricochet down the left to Joselu, who found Atsu in the box for an easy one timed shot pas Adrian.
West Ham 1
Newcastle 3
When Andy Carroll came on for Antonio, the obvious strategic move would be to use his presence in the box. Which is why the Cresswell short corner prior to Newcastle’s third goal was so absurd? In the 69th minute, West Ham won another corner and this time Plan A was adopted. Carroll got to the ball first, Elliot couldn’t hang on, and Ayew drilled home the second ball. I still don’t forgive him for the penalty, but I’ll take the goal.
West Ham 2
Newcastle 3
In the 77th minute, my patience with Ayew ran out. West Ham were able to clear their area and launch Ayew on a counter. With acres of space in front of him, he inexplicably slowed down, lost the ball, and Kouyate had to foul to stop Newcastle from breaking. Moments later he was replaced by Hernandez.
The Hammers won a free kick in the 83rd minute from just outside the right side of the Newcastle eighteen yard box. Cresswell sent it into the box, but Newcastle did well to clear it from danger. A minute later Masuaku had the ball down the left and while his ball control can be impressive, that was not the time to dance around. Eventually Obiang sent a weak ball right at Elliot, the kind of action that was indicative of his overall lousy day.
Final Score
West Ham 2
Newcastle 3
This was just an awful day. We could have truly moved away from danger with a win, and not only did we fail in that endeavor we played quite poorly as well. Make no mistake, Newcastle were the better side and deserved the three points. West Ham reverted to the kind of scatterbrained defending that got us into the trouble we were in and are back in. The attack had no cohesion, and even when Carroll was inserted the route one version went off the road and into a ditch.
A very disheartening performance to match the freezing rain we have in my part of the world.