West Ham United 2-2 Newcastle United: a decent point, but it should have been three

Newcastle drew 2-2 with West Ham on Sunday afternoon, though the Magpies probably deserved to leave the London Stadium as the victors of a hard-fought contest.

Here's our in-depth recap of the match, including a few minutes of highlights, as we try our utmost to look beyond the disappointment of conceding such a late equaliser.

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Match Report

A brace from Alexander Isak wasn't enough to earn Eddie Howe another three points in East London, although the Magpies are now unbeaten in seven matches and have had an unbelievable month since the Brighton defeat.

In a strange first half where West Ham were happy to let their visitors dominate possession, David Moyes' side scored from their only shot when Tomáš Souček found the net in the eighth minute.

The goal did not reflect well on Jamaal Lascelles nor Sean Longstaff, with both switching off to let Emerson Palmieri storm into the box onto Lucas Paquetá's lofted through ball. Nick Pope got it all wrong, too, rushing out to try and atone for his teammates' errors but leaving himself in no man's land. For his part, Emerson was extremely unselfish, rounding the goalkeeper and squaring the ball to the big Czech midfielder, who stroked home from just five yards.

The opener came very much against the run of play, with Howe's men having made a decent start to the contest, but the visitors were fortunate to keep eleven men on the pitch soon after.

Bruno Guimarães was rightly booked for a clumsy foul on Emerson in the 17th minute but got away with a worse offence on James Ward-Prowse just a minute later, after being played a dreadful hospital ball by Sandro Tonali. The Brazilian should have been given his marching orders, but referee Peter Bankes seemed to take pity on him given the close proximity of the two fouls and let him stay on the field.

Not much else of note happened in the opening period thereafter, but a sluggish Newcastle burst into life after spending fifteen minutes with their head coach during the interval. By the hour mark, they'd turned the game around thanks to Isak's two goals.

The first came from a routine free-kick from Kieran Trippier that Edson Álvarez made a mess of dealing with. The Mexican midfielder only succeeded in knocking the ball straight into the path of Newcastle's number 14, who took a touch to steady himself before lifting the ball over Alphonse Areola from six yards.

The Swede was at it again five minutes later when putting the finishing touch on a picture book goal from the black and whites.

Elliot Anderson and Sean Longstaff progressed the ball down the left before Anderson found Guimarães infield about 40 yards from goal. The Brazilian floated a nice diagonal pass out of Trippier, who judged the flight perfectly when back-pedalling to cushion a volleyed cross straight to Isak four yards out. The Striker bought himself an extra yard with a nudge in the back of Nayef Aguerd before volleying home off his left foot to send the travelling supporters into raptures.

Isak striker should have sealed the game soon after when released by a fantastic through ball from Dan Burn—not a line we ever expected to write—and rounding Areola with relative ease. His final touch before shooting was slightly heavy, though, meaning he could only fire off the base of the post left-footed from a tight angle around six yards out.

There was still around half an hour to play after that point, unfortunately, though West Ham surprisingly didn't apply much pressure until very late. Indeed, by the 89th minute, they had still only registered that solitary attempt at goal. Enter Mohammed Kudus.

The Ghanaian is yet to start for Moyes in the Premier League, somehow, but did his chances no harm when smashing home a half-volley from 18 yards after being found by Vladimír Coufal on the edge of the box. The less said about Tonali's attempt to block the effort, the better.

The hosts had scored two goals from their only two shots and nearly made it three from three in added time. Pope went some way to atoning for a poor afternoon when denying Jarrod Bowen and somehow managing to divert the ball away from the onrushing Saïd Benrahma, rather than straight into his path.

Things petered out from there with both teams looking satisfied with a point following an extremely heavy run of fixtures, though Moyes was undoubtedly the happier of the two managers. For Howe, the late equaliser would have been a tough pill to swallow after a fantastic turnaround in the second half, but he will be all too aware that the first 45 minutes wasn't good enough.

Still, we said before the game that we would take a point and that we expected to see a score draw. In the context of the last month of football, this was another very decent result. The Magpies are unbeaten in seven matches, two points better off than at the same stage last season, and were stretched very thin by injuries and suspension today.

For once, we're glad of an international break.

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Highlights

The Sky Sports Premier League YouTube channel was quick off the mark today! Here are all of the key moments from the London Stadium in a neat three-minute package:

Up Next

Following the international break, the Magpies will return to action on Saturday 21st October when they welcome Crystal Palace to St. James' Park for an old-fashioned 3 p.m. kick-off.