Tomas Soucek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka combined to burst Newcastle’s bubble as West Ham handed under-pressure boss Julen Lopetegui breathing space with a priceless Premier League away win.
Soucek headed the Hammers into a first-half lead in front of a largely stunned crowd of 52,094 at St James’ Park before Wan-Bissaka’s first goal for the club ended the Magpies’ three-game winning run in all competitions with a 2-0 defeat which prevented them from climbing into the top six.
Eddie Howe’s men were culpable for both goals, but also guilty of not using the wealth of possession they enjoyed effectively enough on a night when chances went begging.
By contrast, the visitors were lethal on the break and produced the most fluent passages of play to leave Tyneside more than satisfied with a job well done.
The visitors took a 10th-minute lead when Soucek was left criminally unmarked by Lloyd Kelly, deputising for the suspended Dan Burn, to power home a header from Emerson Palmieri’s corner.
Joe Willock whipped a shot just wide of Lukasz Fabianski’s left post but, with Paris St Germain loanee Carlos Soler linking well with Lucas Paqueta in the centre of midfield and Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville taking a direct approach from the flanks, the Hammers were a constant threat on the counter.
Sean Longstaff headed straight at Fabianski from Anthony Gordon’s floated 29th-minute cross and Lewis Hall sent a skidding shot just past the upright as the hosts responded.
Fabianski blocked Gordon’s 36th-minute shot from point-blank range after defender Jean-Clair Todibo had failed to deal adequately with Longstaff’s low cross, and Alexander Isak, who had earlier seen a good finish ruled out for offside, blasted off target after controlling Bruno Guimaraes’ cross on his chest, although he may again have gone marginally too soon.
Nick Pope had to pluck Bowen’s dipping snapshot from under his crossbar deep into added time, but the first half ended with the visitors a goal to the good.
Harvey Barnes, who scored twice inside the final seven minutes in Newcastle’s 4-3 comeback win in the corresponding fixture last season, replaced Willock at the break and helped his side lay siege to the West Ham goal in an early flurry.
Gordon’s 51st-minute prod sailed just the wrong side of the far post with Fabianski beaten, but Wan-Bissaka enjoyed better fortune two minutes later when he ran on to Bowen’s pass inside and steered a shot across Pope and in off the upright.
The hosts were in disarray at the back and it took a series of blocks and Pope’s saves from Soucek and Soler to preserve their hopes of a fightback.
Substitute Sandro Tonali sent Tino Livramento away down the right to cross for Isak, but the misfiring Sweden international was unable to direct his header at goal, and Callum Wilson’s penalty appeals, to his astonishment, were waved away on his first appearance of the season following a clumsy challenge by fellow substitute Konstantinos Mavropanos.
