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West Ham came crashing back down to earth at St James' Park on Saturday afternoon with a disappointing defeat at the hands of relegation-threatened Newcastle United, as Steve McLaren finally got the better of his opposite number.

Not for the first time this season, Slaven Bilic's side - who have generally excelled against teams in the top half of the Premier League - found themselves reflecting on a defeat against a team who, on current form, should perhaps not have enjoyed the dominance they did.

In truth, the game was all but lost inside the opening 15 minutes after a disastrous start left the Hammers facing a veritable mountain to climb.

Goals from Ayoze Perez (six minutes) and Georginio Wijnaldum (15) gave the home side and their manager - dubbed 'the wally with the brolly' following England's defeat by Bilic's Croatia in the 2008 European Championship qualifiers - a dream opening that simply left the visitors with too much to do.

For West Ham, who remain fifth in the table despite the reversal, it continued a worrying trend of poor starts that has potentially cost the team several points this season. The team endured a similarly dismal beginning at Sunderland back in October but managed to claw their way back into that and rescue a point - as was the case at home to Norwich the week before.

More recently, conceding the opening goal against both Southampton and Bournemouth was glossed over by brilliant second half performances - whilst draws at relegation candidates Swansea and Aston Villa over Christmas were slightly fortuitous, given the hosts' general superiority on those particular occasions.

All of which points to a predilection for complacency on West Ham's part, which Bilic will no doubt be keen to eradicate. But as any long-suffering supporter will tell you, this is all part of 'the West Ham way' - as any brief glance at the club's catalogue of embarrassing Cup defeats against lower league opposition will attest!

Earlier in the week West Ham started just as poorly against Bournemouth, going a goal behind early on, but were saved by brilliant individual efforts from Dimitri Payet and Enner Valencia who scored a brace for the first time since moving to England in the summer of 2014.

It was the kind of performance that even had some pundits suggesting that the Hammers might be an outside bet for a Champions' League spot. Whilst that sort of talk may be premature the signs remain positive, despite the odd poor performance and concern regarding motivation.

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