Sunday, February 5

Paqueta earns deserved point at Newcastle

Newcastle United 1 West Ham United 1

When Newcastle score after 40 seconds it looks like being a long afternoon. Willock's effort is correctly disallowed by VAR as the ball has gone out of play, but from the resulting goal kick Newcastle score a legitimate goal. Paqueta isn't strong enough in midfield, Longstaff nicks it and plays a through ball to Callum Wilson. He has managed to get between Ogbonna and Kehrer for a simple finish. It's a poor goal to concede.

Schar flicks a free kick over the bar but the response from West Ham is good.The players look angry and driven on by the excellent Rice the Irons start to have the better of the half. Emerson makes a number of surging runs and after good work by Antonio, Benrahma shoots on his right foot instead of taking it on his left.

When Paqueta has an effort deflected narrowly wide the Irons win a corner. I'm wondering why Rice is taking it when he would surely be more use in the box. Declan answers my doubts by whipping in an excellent inswinger, which is flicked on by Aguerd. Paqueta is on hand at the far post to control and calmly poke over the line. He celebrates with a double somersault, something not even Antonio (or the balletic Iain Dowie) attempted after scoring for WHU.

Benrahma cuts inside only to fire wide from a good position and then Aguerd puts a free header over the bar from Coufal's free kick. So it's 1-1 at the break.

The Hammers start the second half well, with Johnson on for the injured Kehrer. The last half an hour is Newcastle pressure though as Coufal blocks Saint-Maximin's goalbound effort. Joelinton is booked for a terrible dive and Newcastle's best chance is a Wlson header straight at Fabianski.

Aguerd has a great game at the back and his best moment is a sprint back to make a superb tackle on Wilson just as the forward is about to shoot. Credit to Coufal too for another well-timed tackle on Saint Maximin in the box.

In the end it's a very creditable away point and one of the best performances of the season. Newcastle looked a little tired after reaching Wembley in midweek and missed Guimaraes. But this was a solid team performance from West Ham. Even my fellow season ticket holder Matt is impressed, and for the first time in his life says on WhatsApp that he thought the ref had a good game. 

This was more like last season and gives the side something to build on. Now all we have to do is beat Chelsea and their 57 new signings. Irons!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Aguerd was excellent and will, I hope, go onto captain WHU once Rice has moved on.
Another Moroccan is, in my view, the perfect player to step into Declan’s boots - Sofyan Amrabat.
Brilliant for them in the World Cup, he plays for Fiorentina and was wanted on loan by Barcelona.
He plays just the way Rice plays and might well be happy to join Aguerd at the London Stadium. We can afford him with what we
get for Dec.