A West Ham United team inspired by Lucas Paqueta (£5.9m) came from behind to beat Newcastle United on Sunday, marking the Hammers’ first win of the Nuno Espirito Santo era.

Here are our Scout Notes from the London Stadium.

PAQUETA INSPIRES

West Ham picked up their first Premier League home win since February, with No 10 Lucas Paqueta playing a pivotal role.

The Brazilian lashed home the equaliser from outside the box and delivered a superb performance, linking perfectly with Freddie Potts (£4.4m) and Manuel Fernandes (£5.5m) in the middle of the park.

The only blemish: Paqueta received his fourth booking of the season and is now just one yellow card away from a ban.

As for West Ham, Nuno’s decision to switch to a back four and recall Callum Wilson (£5.8m) certainly paid off.

Defensively robust and dangerous on the counter-attack, it was the type of performance many had anticipated when Nuno was first appointed.

Potts, meanwhile, had a goal ruled out for offside, took five of West Ham’s seven corners and very nearly hit the defensive contribution (DefCon) threshold on his first Premier League start, earning praise from his manager as a result:

“I think Freddie [Potts] and Mateus [Fernandes] did a good game. The idea was to try and control the middle against Newcastle because they have Bruno, they have Joelinton, they have some quality players. If you allow them to play free, they’re going to put you against the road, so realising that you had to work very hard was good and the young guys did it. It was important to see that we were suffering but not conceding. We were being resilient without the ball, realising that if we are organised it’s hard to beat us. So, it’s a small step in the way we had to improve.” – Nuno Espirito Santo

Above: West Ham’s average position map v Newcastle, featuring midfield trio Fernandes (No 18), Potts (32) and Paqueta (10)

Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.3m) also impressed at right-back, playing with real intensity and providing the assist for Sven Botman’s (£4.9m) unfortunate own goal.

He also banked DefCon to total seven points.

BOWEN UNLUCKY

There was frustration for Jarrod Bowen (£7.8m) owners on Sunday, however.

Attacking returns somehow eluded him, as he hit the post with a drilled shot and had a penalty overturned by VAR, which we should note was the correct call.

He was also denied a late assist.

At first glance, it looked like Bowen’s attempt had been saved by Nick Pope (£5.2m), and Tomas Soucek (£5.7m) had merely fired in the rebound. That would have earned Bowen a Fantasy assist.

However, Opta decided that there were two shots from a sliding Soucek; the first one saved by Pope, before the Czech bundled it over the line. So, no assist for Bowen.

Bowen did at least look in the mood on Sunday, recording four shots and two chances created, with a favourable home clash against Burnley up next.

HOWE ON GORDON + WOLTEMADE

Newcastle led early through a Jacob Murphy (£6.1m) goal, assisted by Bruno Guimaraes (£6.6m).

However, the situation deteriorated rapidly for Eddie Howe’s team, with the visitors sloppy in and out of possession.

Clearly not happy, Howe substituted Anthony Gordon (£7.5m) and Nick Woltemade (£7.5m) at half-time, replacing them with Jacob Ramsey (£5.3m) and William Osula (£5.5m).

Emil Krafth (£4.4m), in for Kieran Trippier (£5.0m) due to illness, also made way for Fabian Schar (£5.4m).

Explaining his decision, Howe said:

“Yeah, I was really disappointed with the first half, I mean it started so well, we scored early and we thought we could really grab hold of the game from that moment. But we didn’t, we let it slip away and the longer that half went on the more frustrated I was with our performance and we were unrecognisable I think in certain aspects of our game, so I made the change to try and bring some energy and a different dynamic to the team, a different feeling and different relationships on the pitch. I thought we were better in the second half, I don’t think we were particularly great though and that’s why we didn’t get back in the game.” – Eddie Howe

“… I almost could have taken anyone off and I think that was a reflection of where we were in that moment in the game and it’s very, very rare for me to feel that way. In fact, I don’t think I have since I’ve been manager of Newcastle, so I felt the team needed some shaking up at half-time, that’s why I did what I did.” – Eddie Howe

Lewis Hall (£5.2m) was at least back on the bench, having returned from injury.

However, Newcastle are now winless in eight Premier League away matches following Sunday’s collapse, a run which has seen them pick up just four points.

Next up is a trip to Brentford in Gameweek 11, which follows a midweek UEFA Champions League clash against Athletic Club.

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