West Ham have won their first home game of the season as they defeated Newcastle United 3-1 in the Premier League at the London Stadium.
The Hammers fell behind in the first five minutes but recovered to score two goals before half time and then added a third in injury time to win their first game under Nuno Espirito Santo.
West Ham’s Manager Nuno Espirito Santo made a few changes from last week’s match against Leeds. Callum Wilson and Mateus Fernandes both returned to the starting line-up while Freddie Potts made his first start this season.
Before the game Hammers manager Santo said that the team had to ‘be strong at home’ and within the first few minutes of the match the home team were showing signs of responding as they came forward in numbers and nearly took the lead when Jarrod Bowen hit the post from outside the box.
Within a few seconds the Magpies went on a suburb counterattack and Murphy teed up a shot from about 20 yards which flew past Alphonse Areola and into the net on 4 minutes.
In a lively start West Ham was then rewarded a penalty on 14 minutes when Malick Thiaw brought down Bowen but was ruled out after a VAR check.
The Hammers were now playing with confidence as they came forward again and came close to equalising when Maximilian Kilman’s powerful header in the box was saved by Pope after a good cross from Potts on 33 minutes.
The chances kept coming for the home side and they finally scored a deserved equaliser when Paqueta found the back of the net with a wonderful strike from outside the box after a punch clearance from Pope is headed into the path of the midfielder on 35 minutes.
The home fans continued to roar on the home side and were rewarded again as the Hammers took the lead after Sven Botman accidently slices Aaron Wan-Bissaka's ball into the box past his own goalkeeper seconds before half-time.
The Hammers went into the break clearly the better side and their performance in the first half did not reflect their league position.
West Ham started the second half the same way they started the first and could have increased their lead when Bowen's run and cross into the box resulted in Crysencio Summerville hooking it over the bar on 49 minutes.
The home side then started to sit back to hold on to their lead and nearly paid the price as the visitors came forward and an attempted shot by Murphy went wide of the right post on 66 minutes.
A few minutes later the Hammers then thought they had increased their lead after Potts put the ball in the back of the Newcastle net, but it was immediately ruled out for offside.
The Hammers were now clearly trying to defend their lead as they got men behind the ball and were hoping to hit Newcastle on the counterattack, and their game plan nearly worked when Paqueta low shot was comfortably saved by Pope after a good run and cross from Bowen 5 minutes from time.
But it finally worked in injury time when Bowen's attempt is half saved by Pope, but Tomás Soucek reacted quickly to turn it over the line to make it 3-1 in what turned out to be the last kick of the game.
West Ham won to record their first home win since February but still remain in the bottom three with seven points.