Newcastle 0-3 West Ham: Javier Hernandez scores twice as Hammers halt Magpies' run

Javier Hernandez scored twice as West Ham ended Newcastle's winning run with an accomplished 3-0 victory at St James' Park.

Hernandez, starting for the first time in a month, put the Hammers ahead after 11 minutes when he finished from Robert Snodgrass' cross.

The visitors spurned several chances to add to their lead before Hernandez made it 2-0 in the 63rd minute.

Newcastle were largely lacklustre in their hunt for a fourth straight Premier League win and Felipe Anderson's injury-time goal did not flatter the Hammers.

This was the best performance in a while from Manuel Pellegrini's side, who showed greater quality in attack to secure only their second win since the start of October.

Those Newcastle fans who took part in an 11th-minute "walk-in" protest against owner Mike Ashley arrived into the ground just in time to see West Ham take the lead.

Snodgrass curled in a fine cross from the right and Hernandez ran behind a static defence to finish from close range.

West Ham looked threatening on the break and Marko Arnautovic couldn't finish from a tight angle after taking the ball around Martin Dubravka from Anderson's through pass.

Ayoze Perez had Newcastle's best chance of the first half in the 26th minute when he headed over from close range.

Perez dragged a shot wide later in the half while Salomon Rondon saw an effort brilliantly blocked by a sliding Pablo Zabaleta.

Rondon also headed over from a corner in the 53rd minute, but it was downhill for Newcastle from there.

Hernandez wasted two good chances to score, failing to connect with a cross from Arnautovic before firing into the side-netting when he only had Dubravka to beat.

However, the striker made amends in the 63rd minute as he slipped a low shot past the goalkeeper from Arnautovic's header over the top of the defence.

Anderson was then denied by Dubravka but, after Newcastle failed to mount any sort of comeback, the Brazilian made it 3-0 in injury-time when he bundled past Fabian Schar and fired home.

Opta stats

• Newcastle have lost their first Premier League game against West Ham since September 2015, having won three on the bounce against the Hammers prior to today.
• West Ham recorded their biggest Premier League victory against Newcastle at St James' Park since October 1998 (also 3-0).
• Newcastle have lost six of their opening eight Premier League games at St. James' Park this season (W2) - the Magpies last suffered as many defeats in their opening eight home league games of a season during the 1953/54 campaign (P8 W2 D0 L6).
• West Ham have kept their first away clean sheet of the season and their first on the road in the competition since their final away game of the 2017/18 campaign against Leicester (2-0).
• West Ham's Felipe Anderson has scored four goals in his last four Premier League games having netted just one in his opening 10 appearances in the competition for the Hammers.
• West Ham striker Javier Hernandez's brace was his first in the Premier League since August 2017 in a 2-3 defeat against Southampton.
• West Ham's Javier Hernandez has scored 48 Premier League goals with all of those strikes coming from inside of the box - only Tim Cahill (56) has scored more goals in the competition with 100% of them coming from inside of the box.

Man of the match - Felipe Anderson

Hernandez might have outscored Anderson, but the Brazilian produced an excellent all-around display. He was dangerous on the break, finished with the highest passing accuracy of any West Ham player who started the game and was deserving of his late goal.

Pundit verdict - Matt Le Tissier

"To be fair, in the first half Newcastle created many more chances than West Ham, so they were lucky to go in 1-0 up at the break. But after Hernandez made it 2-0, Newcastle's heads dropped and the wind was really taken out of their sails.

"And it did not look like they believed they could get back in the game. And then it was all killed off in the final few minutes."

What's next?

Newcastle travel to Everton on Wednesday before a home game against Wolves next Sunday, live on Sky Sports. West Ham are at home against Cardiff on Tuesday and against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

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