AFTER the doom, gloom and setbacks of the last fortnight, a much-needed boost for Newcastle United thanks to a win in the capital. Do the same again on Sunday and Eddie Howe and his patched up team will be forever remembered as heroes.
They’ll have to improve on their display on Monday night if they’re to beat Liverpool, for the champions elect and underwhelming West Ham are worlds apart.
But the Magpies head for Wembley buoyed by a 1-0 success that lifted them back up to sixth in the Premier League, level on points with Manchester City and just two behind fourth-placed Chelsea. The dream and the priority right now is obviously a trophy lift, but Monday night’s win ensures Newcastle remain right there in the mix for Champions League football next season, a very realistic possibility with 10 games to play.
That’s a competition in which Bruno Guimaraes should be playing and it was the Brazilian who poked home the winner just after the hour mark at the London Stadium. Alexander Isak wants to be playing against Europe’s elite as well. Any fears that he’ll miss Sunday’s final all but disappeared last night. He was deemed fit enough to start and got 80 minutes under his belt before being replaced by Callum Wilson.
Isak was contained, quiet and never really looked like adding to his recent goal haul. But Howe wouldn’t have risked playing the striker if he wasn’t right. And if he was going to have an off-day this week, better at the London Stadium than Wembley.
The full-time whistle was met by a double fist pump from Howe, who, alongside his players, headed for the away end where Bruno, Joelinton and others joined in with a chant of Que Sera.
Harvey Barnes went off alongside Isak with 10 minutes to play no doubt satisfied with his night’s work. It was Barnes, handed his opportunity in the absence of the suspended Anthony Gordon, who created the winner for Bruno and very possibly secured his spot in the starting XI at Wembley.
It would be no surprise now if Howe stuck with the team that started at West Ham, even if Tino Livramento did look uncomfortable at times at left-back.
Nick Pope, preferred to Martin Dubravka, will almost certainly keep the gloves. If he does, he’ll expect to be far busier on Sunday than he was last night. West Ham had only two shots on target and finished the game with an xG of 0.4.
His first job, however, was very nearly to pick the ball out of the net.
The Magpies know what Tomas Soucek is all about, for it was the Czech midfielder who scored the goal that set the Hammers on their way to their November victory at St James' Park.
And he was gifted a glorious chance to open the scoring after just 44 seconds when Livramento completely miskicked an attempted clearance, hardly the most convincing start on the left side of the defence in the absence of the injured Lewis Hall. Thankfully for Livramento and Newcastle, Soucek scooped over.
There was more relief for the makeshift left-back at the midway point of the first half when he cheaply conceded possession inside his own half but was let off the hook when Jarrod Bowen shot straight at Pope. Mo Salah will almost certainly take full advantage of any such slip-ups on Sunday.
As will his fellow attackers if Newcastle are as defensively vulnerable as they looked at times in the first half. Mohammed Kudus pounced on aerial uncertainty between Fabian Schar and Dan Burn but failed to get a shot away.
Newcastle had six efforts on goal in the first half, three of them coming from Barnes. No doubt desperate to make an impact after Gordon's red card provided him with a chance he won't have been expecting, the winger had United's first good opportunity but sliced wide from close range, the result, perhaps, of his lack of recent football.
He went closer with his two opportunities that followed, twice denied by Alphonse Areola, first when he instinctively got a close-range touch on Kieran Trippier's drilled shot and then when he met a corner from the full-back with his head.
That was as good as it got for Newcastle in the first half, the Magpies industrious but lacking attacking spark. They couldn't get Isak into the game.
And he was a spectator in the early stages of the second half as well, for it was West Ham who were the busier and brighter, Kudus’ influence growing.
But it was Bruno whose influence changed the game on the hour mark. First, the Brazilian lofted a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Jacob Murphy, whose cross was turned towards his own goal by Jean-Clair Tobido and somehow kept out by Areola. It was the closest Newcastle had come and it lifted the Magpies, who were ahead within two minutes.
West Ham stood off Barnes and allowed him to lift in a cross that was poked home by the captain in front of the away end.
