West Ham won their first home game since February, and their first under new boss Nuno Espirito Santo, by beating travel sick Newcastle 3-1.
Lucas Paqueta’s strike, Sven Botman own goal and Tomas Soucek’s goal at the death saw the Hammers, who have looked relegation certainties over their first nine matches, register probably the shock of the weekend in the Premier League.
It was so long ago that that West Ham last won at home – 248 days to be precise – that even Newcastle had tasted victory at the London Stadium more recently than them.
Unfortunately for the Magpies, they have won only once on the road since then, a rotten run of their own stretching back to March.
Some mutinous West Ham fans planned to stage a sit-in after the match in protest against the club’s owners, and for once the team gave them a reason to stay until the end.
Yet it began in familiarly calamitous fashion for the Hammers, who hit a post through Jarrod Bowen and promptly fell behind 26 seconds later.
For reasons best known to himself, £40million centre-half Max Kilman was caught well out of position, deep in Newcastle’s half, as Bruno Guimaraes sauntered up the pitch before playing the ball out to Jacob Murphy.
In the face of absolutely no pressure whatsoever from West Ham’s defence, Murphy cut inside and slotted the ball home from 20 yards.
So far this season, conceding an early goal at home has been the cue for West Ham to capitulate, with Chelsea, Tottenham and Brentford all leaving Stratford with handsome wins under their belts.
But Newcastle, it seemed, had not got the memo and instead of going for the throat, the visitors retreated into their shells.
West Ham were awarded a penalty by referee Robert Jones after Malick Thiaw brought down Bowen, but a VAR check showed the defender touched the ball first.
Such is West Ham’s luck at the moment they did not even get the corner they should have won, with Jones giving Newcastle a drop ball instead.
Yet the Hammers, invited forward by Newcastle’s lack of ambition, continued to press and Nick Pope had to palm Paqueta’s free-kick onto a post before, from the resulting corner, tipping Kilman’s header over the top.
The equaliser arrived in the 35th minute when Pope punched a clearance out to the edge of the area.
The goalkeeper may have been expecting Paqueta to curl the ball towards the far post, but instead the Brazilian pinged his shot low inside the near post.
Then, in first-half stoppage time, Newcastle produced their own brand of shambolic defending, Botman turning Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross past the wrong-footed Pope and into his own net.
Frustrated Magpies boss Eddie Howe made a triple substitution at the break with the ineffective Nick Woltemade taken off along with Anthony Gordon and Emil Krafth.
But Fabian Schar, William Osula and Jacob Ramsey made little difference and West Ham wrapped up an unlikely victory in stoppage time when Bowen’s shot was saved by Pope and Soucek slid in the rebound.
A much-needed win did not stop a few thousand angry fans from staying behind long after the final whistle, chanting ‘sack the board’ towards owner David Sullivan.
