West Ham suffered another dent in their Premier League top-four challenge as they were held 1-1 by Newcastle United.
The Hammers missed the chance to move back inside the UEFA Champions League qualification places despite taking the lead through Craig Dawson at the London Stadium.
Craig Dawson is an absolute menace on set-pieces 💥
His second goal in a week gives West Ham the lead against Newcastle! pic.twitter.com/LqMJeCpTLj
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 19, 2022
David Moyes’ side were unable to retain their advantage until half-time as Joe Willock equalised before the break.
After the match, Moyes admitted that West Ham ‘didn’t really cope’ with the contest and bemoaned a lack of creativity in possession at times.
Former Irons’ frontman Dean Ashton was critical of the performance of Michail Antonio as the pundit told talkSPORT the 31-year-old must ‘work a little bit smarter’ in forthcoming games.
But, how did the rest of the players fare…
READ WEST HAM VERDICT
XI: Lukasz Fabianski 6, Ryan Fredericks 5, Craig Dawson 7, Kurt Zouma 6, Aaron Cresswell 7; Declan Rice 6, Tomas Soucek 5, Jarrod Bowen 6, Said Benrahma 5, Pablo Fornals 5, Michail Antonio 6.
Subs: Ben Johnson 6, Nikola Vlasic NA,
Not the finest hour and a half for Moyes’ men.
Outside of Dawson and Cresswell, few could leave the pitch satisfied with their display.
Whilst Antonio and Bowen were both busy and influencing matters, too often their best work was done from deeper positions and the quality in the final third was missing.
Attention can now turn to a meeting with fellow top-four hopefuls Wolves and Moyes may have a decision to make over a goal-barren Antonio.
