A surprising but well deserved win at Newcastle gives West Ham a new lease of life.

Heading into the clash in the North East, everyone, including their own fans, had written West Ham off. While Newcastle were in brilliant form, the Irons hadn’t put in a solid performance in any of their last four matches.

However, not only did the Hammers walk away with all three points, they’ve come away with a glimmer of hope for the remainder of the season after an immense display.

After a strong start from the hosts, West Ham silenced St James’ Park via a beautifully delivered corner kick which Tomas Soucek met superbly to give his side a surprising advantage just 10 minutes into the match.

The following 25 minutes saw the Irons pile on some serious pressure which had Newcastle on the back foot for the majority of the first half. With that being said, throughout the half Newcastle did have a fair few chances (some that they really should have made more of) but the only time they found the back of the net was from Isak who was in an offside position.

Following the break, the end-to-end affair showed no sign of letting up but, thankfully, West Ham were able to strengthen their lead. A brilliant nick of the ball from Paqueta allowed Bowen to run down the right wing to put in an excellent low cross to Wan-Bissaka who, surprisingly, had ran his way into the box unmarked which meant he had the space to stroke the ball into the far bottom corner.

The away side managed to establish a comfortable position from this which reduced Newcastle to just two shots on target throughout the entire match.

By far the biggest scare came when Callum Wilson was brought down in the box by Mavropanos. The referee waved the claims away and, despite it probably being a penalty, VAR agreed. With how poor Craig Pawson was all night though it probably is only fair a bit of luck went the other way. This decision secured their second consecutive clean sheet, which should be extremely reassuring considering the awful amount of goals they were conceding before.

Across the field, there were some unbelievable displays. Fabianski showed no sign of his age, Paqueta put in the best performance he has in over a year, Soler showed why Lopetegui was so desperate to bring him in, and the players that you expect to perform every game did just that – it was an unbelievable display which showcased the effort the side has lacked this season being there in abundance.

Although the win doesn’t move the Hammers up from 14th, it does mean they sit just four points behind 6th place Tottenham. For Julen Lopetegui, this will be a massive relief, giving him some room to breathe. In the short term, he may have saved his job, but in the long term he may have just seen the foundations of what he’s been trying to build finally set in. If that is the case and our Irons build upon the win then fans calling for him to be sacked may be proven to have acted prematurely; they’ll certainly hope that’s the case rather than it being a one off.