David Moyes doubles down on major Newcastle United claim after West Ham United draw

West Ham United manager David Moyes doubled down on his view that Newcastle United are one of the best teams in Europe.

The Scotsman first made the claim during his pre-match press conference and said it again after his side drew 2-2 with the Magpies at the London Stadium.

A mistake by Nick Pope allowed Emerson Palmieri to set up Tomas Soucek for the opener seven minutes in but a brace from Alexander Isak midway through the second-half flipped the game on its head.

The Swede had an opportunity to claim his hat-trick but hit the post when rounding goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was a chance he and Newcastle were left to rue as substitute Mohammed Kuds scored an 89th minute equaliser.

Moyes believes the Hammers could have won the game with Bruno Guimaraes “very lucky” to avoid a second yellow card but the 60-year-old settled for a point against a “top team”.

“I’m pleased with a point but I don’t know what that means,” said. Moyes. “I thought we played well in the first half but we were playing against a top team today, one of the best teams at the moment anywhere in the country, certainly one of the best teams in Europe with the way they’ve been playing.

“It was tough. They played really well. We had difficult moments but we struck at it and were resilient. We could have nearly gone 3-1 down but we could have won 3-2 as well. The game was very close.

“They had a chance and we got away with it [when Isak hit the post] which could have obviously finished the game off, but it didn’t and we hung in there and were resilient.

“We had our moments and we got a bit from it when we played a bit better with the ball in the last 15 minutes, and Mo helped us in that situation, and we worked a goal, so we were pleased.”

Moyes added: “For long periods in the second half Newcastle were the better team and we were struggling to contain them at times.

“I thought the substitutes today made a bit of a difference, especially Mo who gave us a different impetus and obviously then got us the equalizing goal as well, which helped us.

“I’m quite pleased with a lot of bits of the performance, especially in the first half when we got in front and we defended well when we needed to.”