Lucas Paqueta's Newcastle United admission before cameras started rolling in West Ham interview

West Ham may have won 2-0 but an exhausted Lucas Paqueta has admitted that playing against Newcastle United was 'so hard'.

Newcastle were nowhere near their relentless best at St James' Park on Monday night as West Ham claimed just their second away win of the season. Newcastle gifted West Ham an early lead - Tomas Soucek found it far too easy to step away from Lloyd Kelly and head home from Emerson Palmieri's corner kick - and the Magpies' defending was not much better for Aaron Wan-Bissaka's second after Paqueta easily dispossessed friend Bruno Guimaraes in the build-up.

Newcastle mustered just two efforts on target in response, despite having a whopping 18 shots, but Paqueta said he was 'so tired' before the cameras started rolling on his post-match interview with Sky Sports. "Playing against Newcastle is so hard," the Brazil international added.

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West Ham ran the second highest distance of any team so far this season in the Premier League on Monday night, which is what Hammers boss Julen Lopetegui called for when facing 'very good players' at a 'very tough stadium'

"I am tired, too," the Spaniard quipped. "You have to run. If you want to compete in the Premier League, you have to run a lot. You have to play a lot. You always have to do a lot of good things.

"I always demand to run and to play. To press, to defend, to attack. For that, you need to have a high rhythm. Above all, against this kind of team, they demand a lot."