THE JARROD SONG
West Ham 2 Newcastle United 2
Newcastle United – Saudi money, a great English manager, a fleet of topless, incoherent, corpulent fans descending on your city, the team consistency of a chameleon – what’s not to like? In spite of all of these attributes however, Newcastle find themselves a point below West Ham in the Premier League table.
Like West Ham, Newcastle have suffered expected defeats, on the road against Manchester City and against ten men at home to Liverpool, but unlike their East End distant relatives they were recently turned over 3-1 by Brighton and Hove Albion, the same score that Hammers triumphed by at the Amex back in late August.
So this should be a draw, or perhaps a narrow win for the home side? If only football were that simple. West Ham haven’t beaten this side at home since March 2019 when goals from Mark Noble and Declan Rice clinched the three points. Since then, a mere point, but this afternoon perhaps something better than the 1-5 mauling in April.
Moyes continues to select Michail Antonio ahead of the ever-improving Mohammed Kudus, but it seems likely we’ll see him at some point during the game depending on how the match is progressing.
The climate-compromised October weather bathes the stadium in waves of summer sun, as West Ham kick off attacking the opposing fans’ end, always the best end of the ground to score early in a match. I mention this now because West Ham are ahead inside the first ten minutes. Receiving the ball down the left channel, Emerson is surprised to see the Newcastle keeper Nick Pope advancing towards him and his temporary loss of control surprises each of them, the loose ball evading Pope’s outstretched fingers into the space behind him. Emerson recovers quickest, pulling the ball back across the goal where Tomas Souček is there waiting to tap it into the unguarded net.
And so it continues for most of the first half with Álvarez, Aguerd and Zouma keeping the strike force from getting within a kick of a strike at goal, and Coufal and Emerson keeping sufficient link play out from the back to make the lower possession stats still count for something in the break.
There could have been something in the water over the half-time break, as Hammers open the second half unaccountably on the back foot.
Alexander Isak, whose only attribute from the first half seemed to be his height, suddenly finds the back of the net twice in three minutes, and that cozy, comforting lead is gone. Both goals stem from a loss of possession in the middle of the pitch, the second specifically from a poor decision from the referee, punishing Paquetá, when he is the player who is fouled.
Moyes is suddenly tactically flat-footed, but it still takes him almost a quarter on an hour to bring on Mohammad Kudus, but when he does, the difference is palpable. Kudus may not look much even to the discerning fan’s eye, but there is something about his nuisance value that always makes goals possible.
With a few minutes of injury time beckoning, Kudus grabs a loose ball just outside of the area and after teeing the ball up with his right, fires in a ferocious left footed half-volley which nestles almost instantaneously in the bottom corner of Pope’s net.
Despite a decent amount of injury time, Hammers have to be left with some satisfaction after rescuing a game they had been bossing but in the end seemed to have thrown the towel in on. Probably the most fair result, but we’re not road-testing ‘fair’ today.
13 Alphonse Areola, 33 Emerson, 4 Kurt Zouma (captain), 5 Vladimir Coufal, 19 Edison Álvarez, 27 Nayef Aguerd, 7 James Ward Prowse, 11 Lucas Paquetá, 22 Saïd Benrahma,, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 9 Michail Antonio
Substitutes: 22 Saïd Benrahma, 18 Danny Ings, 14 Mohammed Kudus
Goalscorers: Tomas Souček, Mohammed Kudus
