OPINION
Newcastle United hosted West Ham on Saturday at St James Park as they searched for their fourth win in the row.
However that turned out to be a difficult task as they quickly fell behind in the 11th minute after Javier Hernandez converted an inch-perfect cross by Robert Snodgrass to make it 1-0.
Then the Hammers forward continued to look sharp in front of goal as he made it 2-0 in the second half and looked a threat all game.
Felipe Anderson made it 3-0 to the Hammers before the final whistle after a brilliant move to ensure the Magpies would get no points.
While Rafa Benitez made changes to turn the game in his favour, they didn’t work out and the Magpies’ winning streak came a to a sudden halt.
Nothing But Newcastle has delivered ratings for all the Magpies players after their performances against West Ham with one scoring a 3/10 as several struggled.
Goalkeeper and defence
Martin Dubravka – 5 – Arguably wasn’t at his best for Hernandez’s first goal but you can’t put too much blame on him as it was a good finish.
DeAndre Yedlin – 4 – Felipe Anderson skipped past the full-back on a few occasions, was quiet when pushing forward in first half also. Yedlin’s crosses were generally poor on Saturday.
Fabian Schar – 6 – Split West Ham midfield with one pass within the first 10 minutes. Beautiful run moments later as he skipped past several players, to look some player. However he seem to be the player that could have done more to stop the Hammers taking a 1-0 lead through Hernandez. Lazy header gifted the Hammers a corner. Mixed game really for him.
Federico Fernandez – 5.5 – Did some great defending to deny Hernandez a golden opportunity. However his marking for the Hammers’ opening goal wasn’t great, nor their second one either.
Javier Manquillo – 5 – Nearly played Matt Ritchie in on goal with a whizzing cross, then proceeded to get caught out on a few occasions in the first half. Looked defensively suss.
Midfield
Matt Ritchie – 5 – Put in some good crosses early on. Booked quite early on and had to be aware of this. Looked unhappy to be taken off.
Sung-Yeung Ki – 7 – Sent Ayzoe Perez on the attack in the early minutes with brilliant pass. Looked comfortable in midfield despite being on the losing side. However Jack Wilshere did get the better of him in the build-up to the third goal.
Mohamed Diame – 5 – Lost the ball easily to Mark Noble that nearly lead to a good chance for the Hammers. At times powered through midfield to be further forward than Salomon Rondon, but didn’t make the most of this.
Kenedy – 5 – Picked out a poor pass that nearly gifted Marko Arnautovic a very early opportunity. Won the ball back at the 30th minute mark and played Perez through on goal but the Spaniard didn’t take the chance.
Attack
Ayoze Perez – 3 – Fluffed an opportunity gifted to him by Ki to go on the attack due to being indecisive. Perez, who earns £45,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), missed a sitter after Hernandez put his side in front, was probably thankful the offside flag went up. Then proceeded to miss several amazing chances to score before the end of the first half. Didn’t set the record straight in the second half before being bench.
Salomon Rondon – 5.5 – Didn’t have much service in the first-half. Was denied what looked like a certain goal by a last ditch tackle by Pablo Zabaleta just before the half-time whistle. Every time he did get service, he looked alive.
Substitutes
Ritche off, Christian Atsu (53) – 5.5- His effort couldn’t be questioned upon coming on as at one point he was defending deep to keep the scoreline only at 2-0. The only issue he still doesn’t look Premier League quality even though he tries really hard.
Kenedy off, Jonjo Shelvey on (69) – 5- Wasted a freekick and didn’t exactly make much impact.
Perez off, Joselu on (78) – 5 – Joselu ended up playing on the wing, and it was all kinds of wrong as he missed a chance to create an easy opportunity at goal.
