West Ham earned a morale-boosting 3-0 away victory against Newcastle United on Saturday. The result ended Rafa Benitez’s troops three-match winning streak in the League. It was also the perfect response from the Hammers after they fell to a 4-0 demolition at the hands of Manchester City last weekend.
There were plenty of positives to take from the game from a Hammers perspective. The East Londoners played a good brand of counter-attacking football. Javier Hernandez scored a goals either side of half-time to give himself a confidence boost following his recent struggles in front of goal.
Another encouraging achievement from the game for the Hammers was the fact that they kept a clean sheet. Lukasz Fabianski has been great in goal for the club this season but this was only his second clean-sheet all season so far- due to woeful defending from the club.
The influential Felipe Anderson added a third during second half stoppage time to complete the rout.
Despite the many positives to take from the result for the Hammers, manager Manuel Pellegrini feels that his side could have scored more had they been more lethal in front of goal.
He said afterwards as reported by the West Ham website: “We are very satisfied because I think the team played a very good game. We scored three good goals and created at least four or five more chances to score. And we kept a clean sheet, which is not very normal for us this season, so we’re pleased. It was the complete game.
“It was of course a concern, [only keeping one clean sheet before today]. If you keep one, you can play differently. If you are a goal behind and start every game losing, it’s difficult.
“We didn’t play well defending against Manchester City, but of course we worked hard during the week and today we really played the way we need, and we defended the way we need to if we don’t want to concede goals.”
