Newcastle United absolutely battered West Ham United on Wednesday night, despite Declan Rice’s belief that the Hammers were going to get back into the game.
West Ham captain Rice has spoke after the game, and admitted that he thought his side were going to be able to come from behind against Newcastle.
They started the brightest, yet suddenly found themselves 2-0 down within 13 minutes. Eddie Howe’s side were clinical, and blew the Hammers away with their quality in the final third.
However, there were large parts of the first half where it looked like West Ham were going to draw level. Kurt Zouma halved the deficit, while Nick Pope had to make a sharp save to deny Lucas Paqueta.
And it was a save that really caught Rice’s attention.
Declan Rice on West Ham’s loss to Newcastle
The West Ham midfielder spoke to their official website after the game, and broke down their performance before praising his England teammate Pope.
“You sensed us getting back in the game, the first goal killed us and the second was really tough to take,” he said.
“But then you sensed that in the stadium. Someone wins a tackle, a header, and it gets the fans up. We really got on top them.
“There was a couple of other chances we had. Free kick from Lucas, Pope made a great save. We scored the corner.
And there was a real belief at half time, we were pushing each other, really pushing and saying ‘let’s go out there boys, give it everything’ and we couldn’t quite do that.”
Not a perfect night for Nick Pope
While Pope did well to deny Paqueta during the first half, he will be disappointed by his role in Zouma’s goal.
The Newcastle stopper flapped at a corner and missed, allowing the French defender to head into an empty net. There was a coming together between Pope and Michail Antonio, but it definitely was not a foul.
It was a rare error from Pope, and it meant he was denied yet another Premier League clean sheet.
Other than picking the ball out of his net and denying Paqueta, Pope didn’t have much to do. It was a quiet night for the 30-year-old, who was able to sit back and watch Newcastle’s forward players do the business.
Pope’s performance pretty much sums up Newcastle on Wednesday night. Not at his best, but he didn’t need to be.
West Ham constantly hit the self destruct button, which must have infuriated Rice. At times, it felt like he was a one man team out there, unlike Eddie Howe’s band of brothers, who delivered once again.
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