Newcastle United’s three-game winning run came to end in pretty spectacular fashion on Saturday as we welcomed West Ham United to St James’ Park.
Three goals from the visitors put paid to our chances of three points and with no response, we fell to a 3-0 loss.
The frustration was we dominated possession and had greater chances at goal – with four shots on target just like they did, but they were clinical and we were wasteful once again. Manager Rafa Benitez admitted post-game we were back down to earth with a bump and our finishing was the problem on the day, but he also used the loss to send a message to those above and he claimed the difference was “they spent money on offensive players”.
Statistics website Whoscored’s player ratings tell the story as Newcastle failed to get a single rating of 7 or above.
Centre-half Fabian Schar took our top rating with 6.80 and he was followed by Salomon Rondon (6.42), Ki Sung-yueng (6.41), Ayoze Perez (6.34) and Matt Ritchie (6.31).
Not great at all, but we have to look to the next one and hope Rafa’s magic comes back.