CALLUM WILSON MADE West Ham suffer again as Newcastle strengthened their bid to finish in the top four of the Premier League with a thumping 5-1 win at the London Stadium.
Wilson scored twice, early in each half, to take his goal tally to 12 in 13 meetings with the Hammers, meaning only Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen have netted more times against them in the Premier League.
Joelinton also scored before Kurt Zouma pulled one back for the hosts, but West Ham fell apart after half-time.
Awful mistakes by Nayef Aguerd – just 21 seconds into the second half – and Lukasz Fabianski gifted further goals to Wilson and substitute Alexander Isak before Joelinton helped himself to number five.
The Magpies remain in third place and well on course for a Champions League place for the first time since Sir Bobby Robson’s side qualified in 2003.
It could have been very different had West Ham taken the lead with just 40 seconds on the clock when Jarrod Bowen sprinted past Dan Burn down the right and his low cross was turned onto his own post by Bruno Guimaraes.
However, their bubble was burst when Wilson struck. He had scored in the third minute of the reverse fixture at St James’ Park in February, but had to wait until the sixth minute in east London.
When a corner was only half-cleared Allan Saint-Maximin chipped the ball into the box where Wilson got ahead of Zouma and nodded home.
The England international had promised podcast pal Michail Antonio he would dance the Macarena when he scored, and he was as good as his word.
Newcastle were dancing with joy again seven minutes later after Joelinton raced onto Fabian Schar’s through-ball and rounded Fabianski.
An offside flag put the celebrations on ice but a VAR review showed Emerson Palmieri, on the far side of the pitch, had played Joelinton on.
Yet West Ham halved the lead six minutes before half-time when Nick Pope, who had just received treatment for an injury, missed his attempted punch at Bowen’s corner and Zouma headed home.
But any hopes of a comeback were dashed at the start of the second half when Aguerd got the ball stuck under his feet in the area and was robbed by Jacob Murphy, who squared for Wilson to tap into an empty net.
Fabianski made fine saves from Murphy and Saint-Maximin, but he made an almighty mess of clearing Guimaraes’ ball over the top eight minutes from time, allowing Isak to lob the ball into an empty net, before Joelinton broke clear at the death to complete a comprehensive Toon triumph.
