Newcastle United vs West Ham United. Premier League.
St James' Park, NewcastleAttendance52,093.
Monday 28 August 2017 12:28, UK
Newcastle earned their first Premier League victory of the season, beating winless West Ham 3-0 at St James' Park on Saturday.
Joselu netted the opener on his full Newcastle debut in the first half, finishing into an empty net after Christian Atsu's unselfish square ball.
Newcastle grabbed a second with 18 minutes remaining through Ciaran Clark, who rose to head home Matt Ritchie's fine ball from the right.
Sub Alexandar Mitrovic put the cherry on the cake after rounding Joe Hart in the 86th minute, and the result means West Ham are bottom of the Premier League with no points and 10 goals conceded from three games.
During a first half lacking in chances, Newcastle eventually took the lead on 36 minutes through summer signing Joselu.
After young Declan Rice gave the ball away 35 yards from his goal, Atsu was released through on Joe Hart, before squaring for Joselu to bundle home in front of the Gallowgate End.
Hart was forced into a save early in the second half from Ayoze Perez's cross-shot, before Javier Hernandez failed to shuffle his feet quickly enough to turn home Aaron Cresswell's parried shot on the rebound from eight yards.
The impressive Ritchie nearly netted just after the hour mark, Hart getting down low to save his 20-yard effort, but the Scot did have a big part to play in Newcastle's second.
After wrestling the ball free on the right, Ritchie's fine ball was plum on the head of defender Clark, who found the net off the far post with a header.
Hart did well to deny Mitrovic late on from an angle, but the Serbian got his goal with four minutes remaining, rounding the goalkeeper and netting after Perez's deft ball allowed him through on goal.
Rafa Benitez: "Perfect? You will never see something perfect! Great performance, I think the way everybody was working for the team at the end made the difference. When you have this effort from players, fans enjoy and they're even more behind the them.
"When you are working hard, doing well, and score the goal, the confidence is growing."
Slaven Bilic: "They were the better team, it's very disappointing, frustrating that we played the way we played. They were quicker, better in transition, better onto the second ball, and they punished out mistakes for the first couple goals. Simply it wasn't good enough.
"We have to use this international break to sort the things out. Everything we need to sort, based on today, we didn't look good with the ball, and we didn't look good without the ball, so it's everything."
He may not have scored, but midfielder Ritchie was the star of the show on what was initially a nervy afternoon at St James' Park.
Ritchie was the livewire throughout a tense first 45 minutes, and his tenacious closing down of Manuel Lanzini and cross with his so-called weaker foot for Newcastle's second goal was simply superb.
Ritchie demanded the ball throughout, and had more touches than any other player (54), while testing West Ham's defence with 10 crosses into the box.
After the international break, Newcastle go to Swansea on September 10 for Super Sunday. West Ham host Huddersfield on Monday Night Football on September 11, with both games live on Sky Sports Premier League.
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