West Ham responded to pressure in style with a stunning win over Newcastle at St James’ Park.

Many would be forgiven for thinking the worst going into the fixture, with little to no evidence prior to suggest Julen Lopetegui’s side were capable of pulling off a good performance and win at Newcastle – but that was exactly what unfolded.

It was a display that saw each player put in a solid shift, with some outstanding individual showings which reminded many of the quality this team possesses. This coupled with the astute setup and gameplan from Lopetegui, which was seriously needed after an abject opening few months for the Spaniard in east London.

Goals from Tomas Soucek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were decisive, as West Ham claimed a huge win which many will hope can be a springboard to kick on finally this season. We caught up with The West Ham Way Podcast duo Dave Walker and ExWHUEmployee after the win, who were both understandably delighted with what they saw.

“What a fantastic result!” exclaimed Walker. “We desperately needed that and what a relief to see an enjoyable performance that showed some identity. Let’s hope we can build from that now and take it into the Arsenal game.”

Ex was in agreement with Walker, who also wanted to highlight the display from Carlos Soler.

“I’m absolutely buzzing with that result and most importantly performance,” added Ex. “The best performance by a mile this season. Every player put in a shift and you could make a case for anyone to be Man of the Match.

“I would like to give a special shout out to Soler though who has done nothing really all season, but I thought was sensational yesterday and deserves a run in the team on that. The team covered the second amount of miles from a team in the Premier League in the game and 6km more than our next highest.

“This is now the expectation, and if we can match it regularly this season could be more positive than we all anticipated.”