So vertiginous were the heights scaled by Newcastle on Wednesday, with their 4-1 dismantling of Paris Saint-Germain, it was almost inevitable that Eddie Howe's men would be brought down to earth at the London Stadium, forced to dig deep to eke out a result against a resilient West Ham.
The Magpies could have picked up a fifth straight win, in fact, had a brilliant late equaliser from Hammers’ substitute Mohammed Kudus not rescued a point for the home team. It was a fair result. Where Newcastle were full of cunning and elan against PSG, here on a sunny Sunday in east London they were visibly running on empty, deservedly going into the break 1-0 down.
