LONDON (AP) — Callum Wilson inflicted more pain on West Ham as Newcastle strengthened its bid to finish in the top four of the Premier League with a thumping 5-1 win at the London Stadium on Wednesday.
Wilson scored 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 twice and Alexander Isak added another as West Ham fell apart after halftime and was booed off at the final whistle, with the team only out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
Big mistakes by Nayef Aguerd — just 21 seconds into the second half — and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski gifted goals to Newcastle, who stayed in third place and on course for a Champions League spot for the first time since the late Bobby Robson’s side qualified in 2003.
It could have been very different had West Ham taken the lead with just 40 seconds gone when Jarrod Bowen sprinted past Dan Burn down the right and his low cross was turned onto his own post by Bruno Guimaraes.
Wilson made the hosts pay. He had scored in the third minute of the reverse fixture at St. James’ Park in February and only had to wait until the sixth minute in east London.
When a corner was only half-cleared, Allan Saint-Maximin produced a brilliant piece of skill before chipping the ball into the area where Wilson got ahead of Kurt Zouma and nodded home.
The England international had promised his podcast pal, West Ham striker Michail Antonio, that he would dance the Macarena when he scored — and he was as good as his word.
Newcastle was dancing with joy again seven minutes later after Joelinton raced onto Fabian Schar’s through-ball and rounded Fabianski to score.
An offside flag put the celebrations on ice but a VAR review showed left back Emerson Palmieri, on the far side of the pitch, had played Joelinton on.
Yet, West Ham halved the lead six minutes before halftime 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 a mess of clearing Guimaraes’ ball over the top eight minutes from time, allowing Isak to lob the ball into an empty net.
Joelinton broke clear in the 90th to complete a comprehensive triumph for Newcastle.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
