West Ham United grabbed a late equaliser to claim a point against Newcastle United in a back-and-forth encounter at the London Stadium this afternoon.
Alexander Isak turned the game on its head with a brace after Tomas Soucek opened the scoring, but it was Mohammed Kudus who earned his side a deserved point with his first Premier League goal for The Hammers in the final minute of regulation time.
West Ham came into the match enjoying their joint best-ever start to a Premier League season, including four wins in their last five games at the London Stadium while only losing to today's opponents, Liverpool and Manchester City, in their last 13 on home soil.
Newcastle dominated possession in the early stages of the match but were unable to cause too many problems during the opening exchanges.
Bruno Guimaraes was shown a yellow card for a foul on Emerson in the 16th minute and was perhaps fortunate not to be sent off for a second bookable offence just two minutes later when he brought down James Ward-Prowse right in front of referee Peter Bankes.
The Hammers seemed comfortable to play on the break and got their noses in front with their first attack of the game after Lucas Paqueta got in behind Kieran Trippier from a ball over the top and rounded Nick Pope before squaring a pass to Soucek for a tap in.
With a few key players missing through injury and a bumper-to-bumper fixture list, Eddie Howe mentioned ahead of the match that any squad rotation may not necessarily be by choice.
However, based on the first-half performance, you would not have been able to tell that Newcastle were the ones that had an extra day's rest after the midweek European fixtures, as it was the home team that looked full of energy and went into the break with a deserved lead.
The second half, though, was a completely different story as The Magpies showed more intent and levelled proceedings before the hour mark after Trippier's free kick from just inside the opposition half was nodded back across goal by a West Ham defender, finding Isak, who finished from just outside the six-yard box.
The travelling Magpies were celebrating again just moments later when the Swedish international turned the match around by poking home an excellent volley across the box from Guimaraes, who was making the most of his red card reprieve in the first half.
Newcastle looked as though they were going to see out a fourth consecutive league victory but The Hammers rallied once again in the final minute of regulation time as Vladimir Coufal burst down the right flank and picked out Kudus, who fired it home from the edge of the box to get his first league goal for West Ham in some style.
The Hammers pushed hard for a late winner, but the score ended level, which in fairness, was probably a fair reflection of the match.
West Ham return to action after the international break with a trip to Villa Park, while Newcastle will take on Crystal Palace at St James' Park. body check tags ::
