Victory hopes up in Smoke once again

NEWCASTLE United’s London stage fright shows no sign of letting up as the Magpies were beaten in the capital again.

Rafa Benitez’s side haven’t won in London this season, but this isn’t a new thing: the defeat was the club’s 75th loss in the Smoke since Premier League records began – and there was an air of inevitably about it as Declan Rice’s header got West Ham off to a great start.

Since United were promoted back to the Premier League in 2017, they have won just once in London – against West Ham last season, but they’ll get two more chances at Arsenal and Fulham.

Benitez cut a disappointed figure in his post-game Press conference.

He was at a loss to explain why Newcastle players switched off as West Ham built up a 2-0 lead.

When asked about the concentration levels of his players, Benitez said: “When you go there, you play against a good team and you know every single one of their players can make a difference.

“We made too many mistakes at the beginning and we paid for that.

“It is very common in football, and especially when you play against good players. West Ham have a lot of good players up front, and you can see as soon as you make a mistake they use their quality to punish you.”

Benitez added: “I am disappointed, and hopefully we will learn from this in the future and not make these same mistakes in the next nine games.

“We have nine games to play, and still we are in a relegation battle so we have to be sure that we approach them like a final.

“We cannot be thinking we are safe, no chance.”

United now face Everton at home and if they can take three points this weekend they will take a big stride towards top-flight safety.