Cabaye ensures Newcastle take points at West Ham

 

Newcastle United outplayed West Ham United at Upton Park, winning 3-1 with a stylish performance which put the Hammers in yet more relegation trouble.

The star of the show was Yohan Cabaye. Sam Allardyce’s side couldn’t get close enough to him to stop his neat, incisive passes from splitting them open with the kind of regularity which makes goals inevitable. If you’re searching for the cliche to describe his performance: he pulled the strings all day.
It was Cabaye who opened the scoring, too. With just 15 minutes gone he controlled a pullback from Yoan Gouffran just inside the area before sliding the ball into the bottom corner with the inside of his foot.
Soon after it was 2-0. An accurate cross from Moussa Sissoko, over two West Ham centre backs, found Loic Remy, who controlled well and poked the ball past Adrian with the kind of nonchalance only acquired by players already in double figures for the season.
That second goal came on 33 minutes, it then took West Ham 15 minutes to think up a reply. It was through the usual Sam Allardyce source: the long ball. Or, more precisely, a sequence of them played into the Newcastle penalty area. Eventually one fell to Carlton Cole, whose attempt to chest the ball down went through Tim Krul and was bundled in by a mixture of Cole and Mike Williamson.
Still in it at the break, West Ham worked hard in the second half and Newcastle backed off, but the equaliser never really looked like coming.
In the last minute of stoppage time, Cabaye made sure it never would, swinging a needlessly-conceded free-kick into the top corner to ensure that Newcastle took the points.
KEY MOMENTS
15’ - CLASSY CABAYE - GOAL! Cabaye puts Newcastle ahead and it's so simple. Gouffran gets the ball back to him on the edge of the area and he just slides it into the bottom corner with the inside of his right foot.
33’ - NEAT REMY FINISH - GOAL! Remy does it. And it's another classy finish. Sissoko's cross finds him at the back post after floating over the West Ham defence - maybe too easily. He calmly took a touch and dispatched the ball past Adrian with a casual flick.
45’ - COLE/WILLIAMSON BRINGS WEST HAM INTO THE GAME - GOAL! Carlton Cole might have got this. West Ham sling a few long balls into the Newcastle box, Newcastle can’t clear, and eventually, as the odds say it must, the ball just hits Cole and ends up rolling over the line. His chest control is clumsy, but the ball goes through the goalkeeper and Williamson then tries to clear, but can't.
55’ - BIG MISS FROM COLE - Cole so close! Taylor's rolled right along the six yard box and Cole arrived in time to meet it, only to...not really meet it. He seemed not to know which foot to slide with and in the end went with not quite either and the ball squirmed wide!
90+4’ - CABAYE KILLS THE GAME - GOAL! Cabaye swings the free kick into the top corner and finishes the game! Great hit.
TALKING POINT - WEST HAM’S CONTINUED STRUGGLES UNDER ALLARDYCE’S LONG BALL REGIME
West Ham lost again today, dropping them back into the bottom three. This is a Sam Allardyce team, so we all just keep expecting them to get out of it, and yet today they lost to a previously out-of-form Newcastle side at Upton Park. The essential problem seems to be that they’re neither creative enough - Newcastle were rarely troubled by their long balls today - or solid enough defensively to be that uncreative. The long ball has forsaken Allardyce: perhaps it’s time for him to try something new, or have West Ham get someone in who will.
MATCHCAST: FULL COMMENTARY AND STATS
KEY STATS
Former Newcastle striker Andy Carroll last scored for West Ham at Upton Park 10 months ago, in March 2013. That record remains in tact after today.
West Ham have won just one of their last nine Barclays Premier League matches (W1 D2 L6).
Newcastle scored more than twice for only the third time this season today.

MAN OF THE MATCH - YOHAN CABAYE
Cabaye was classy today, as most weeks. West Ham couldn’t get close enough to him to stop him threading balls into his teammates and pulling them apart that way. They also couldn’t stop him from scoring twice, in two moments when he had room anywhere near the area: his first goal was a tidy control and finish; his second was a masterful, game-clinching free-kick.
PLAYER RATINGS
WEST HAM UNITED: Adrian 5, Jarvis 5, Rat 5, Collison 5, Taylor 6, Noble 6, Collins 6, Diame 6, Downing 6, C.Cole 6, Johnson 5. Subs: Carroll 4, Morrison 5, J.Cole 5,
NEWCASTLE UNITED: Krul 6; Santon 6, Williamson 7, S.Taylor 7, Yanga-Mbiwa 6; Tiote 7, Anita 7, Cabaye 8; Sissoko 7, Remy 7, Gouffran 7. Subs: Dummett 5, Ben Arfa 6, Shola Ameobi 6.