West Ham's impressive victory relieves some of the pressure on Julen Lopetegui

West Ham United displayed a composed performance on the road as they defeated a revitalized Newcastle United 2-0 in a crucial English Premier League match on November 25th. The victory helped relieve some of the strain on under-fire manager Julen Lopetegui.

Tomas Soucek headed the visitors in front against the run of play at St James’ Park, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka grabbed a rare goal in the second half to double the Hammers’ lead.

Newcastle were unable to capitalise on the chances they created, failing to build on the momentum created by recent wins against Arsenal and Nottingham Forest.

The result, only West Ham’s second win on the road this season, lifts them to 15 points, just three behind 10th-placed Newcastle, who missed out on the chance to move into the top six.

It will be a huge relief for Lopetegui, whose future has been a matter of mounting speculation just months after he replaced David Moyes.

“We are happy because we achieved the three points, which is one important thing, but above all because I think that we played well,” the Spaniard told .

“We are happy, but tomorrow we are working hard, looking forward to the next challenge (against Arsenal). To think about the long future doesn’t help.”

Newcastle made the early running and in-form forward Alexander Isak had the ball in the net in the fifth minute after a delicate dink over Lukasz Fabianski, only for it to be ruled out for offside.

The Magpies, on a three-match winning run in all competitions, enjoyed the bulk of the possession as a lively first half unfolded but West Ham were robust in defence and were a constant threat on the counter.

An unmarked Soucek powered home a header from Emerson Palmieri’s set-piece in the 10th minute.

Following the break, Wan-Bissaka scored his first goal for West Ham and just his third career goal after picking up Jarrod Bowen’s pass and firing across goalkeeper Nick Pope and into the net in the 53rd minute.

Eddie Howe brought on Jacob Murphy and Callum Wilson in a bid to turn the tide but Newcastle failed to build up a head of steam against their determined opponents, who saw out the game with relative ease.

“The first 60 minutes, albeit we’re losing the game 2-0, I think there was a lot of good play from us, we did open them up and had chances to score,” said the Newcastle boss.

“Unfortunately goals will always change the perception of everybody but up until that point I was pretty pleased. The last half an hour I thought we lost our way a little bit, became a bit too desperate to score.” AFP