WHEN is a crisis not a crisis at St James’ Park? When Newcastle United win. Or at least that always seems to be the case on Tyneside.

A comprehensive victory over West Ham brought welcome respite, eased the tension. Yet in typical Newcastle fashion, as recent history suggests, even scoring three goals without reply and turning in a performance to warm the hearts of more than 50,000 home supporters might not be enough to keep everyone happy this week.

And Rafael Benitez is the where the focus is. After all, if the club’s owner Mike Ashley and managing director Lee Charnley don’t get the bits of business done on the transfer front before Thursday’s 11pm deadline, then Newcastle’s Spanish manager will let his feelings known.

But at least Benitez knows his squad does possess the talent to deliver three points in the Premier League; even if he does want the extra bits of top tier quality to ensure wins come along more often.

For all Newcastle do need greater quality within their ranks, the Magpies do have a number of young and hungry footballers with the potential to be success stories at the highest level. Defeating West Ham, however bad Slaven Bilic’s side were, highlighted that.

Benitez wasn’t shouting from the rooftop of the Milburn Stand after avoiding a third successive Premier League defeat for the first time in his career. He merely displayed satisfaction with his expressions, and he clearly wants this week to end as fruitfully in the market place as the visit of the Hammers proved to be.

The Newcastle boss said: “This result doesn’t change anything. For me, this win is a confirmation of the way we have to do things. We said the same against Tottenham but people always remember the score.

“They don’t remember the game when we were well organised and worked so hard. Huddersfield they didn’t have any chances; we didn’t have many chances. Here we worked as hard as in the other games but we had the advantages of the first goal and then we were growing in confidence.”

The presence of Newcastle’s latest signing, Joselu, in the final third certainly helped. Benitez’s frustrations towards Dwight Gayle – highlighted by his omission from the bench – meant the club’s latest buy got an earlier chance than expected to shine.

Joselu didn’t disappoint either. He worked the line well, got through an enormous amount of work and made life difficult for the West Ham defenders. To cap his first start for Newcastle off, he got the opening goal too. With nine minutes remaining of the first half, Joselu slid in to apply the finish to Christian Atsu’s pass across the six yard box after Mikel Merino’s eye for a pass set the Ghana winger away.

Even though Joselu has not been around too long on Tyneside he was fully aware of the importance of delivering a first victory.

He said: “A goal is a goal. I need to be there and I was. Without goals you don’t win the games, so as a striker you need to be in the right positions and I was.

“There is goals in this team. Football is crazy because when you lose a few games there is more pressure, people think you have to win because you can’t afford another defeat.

“People say we needed players to do that (to win), to run further or whatever. But we have just beaten West Ham 3-0 and it could have been more. It shows we have good players here too already. We now have a rest for the international break.”

While Joselu led the line impressively, there were excellent performances across the pitch. If three defeats in a row to Tottenham, Huddersfield and Nottingham Forest had dented confidence then it didn’t show against the Hammers.

It was West Ham resembling a team struggling to find cohesion and a lift, whereas Newcastle won the second balls and looked more dangerous on the attack.

The tenacity levels and tone was set by the two holding midfielders. Merino and Isaac Hayden ran things, linking up together and showing they can produce without Jonjo Shelvey.

Atsu and Matt Ritchie caused problems down the flanks while Ayoze Perez looked like he is really enjoying being given the opportunity to hold down the No 10 role.

Benitez said: “The midfield did well. Isaac is working hard to improve. One of the main things you try to teach them is their understanding of the game – to have the compassion and commitment to know what to do in every situation.

“And there’s more to come from Merino. There’ve been a couple of situations (where the pace has caught him out) but he is very dynamic. He is always moving. It’s a question of understanding the game here.

“He has natural composure on the ball. There were a lot of players I had at Liverpool in the beginning who came from Spain. It’s always difficult at first when you have quality they eventually adapt to the pace of the game

“There are similarities (with Xabi Alonso). They are similar because of the position they are in and the way they read the game. Alonso’s long passing was better but Merino is more mobile and more dynamic.”

It was Merino’s telling pass that created the first goal and from that moment on Newcastle looked comfortable. Whenever West Ham did push on, the home side’s defence was alert and competent enough to keep them out.

The nearest West Ham came to scoring was when Aaron Cresswell’s long rang effort was stopped by Rob Elliot, who then half saved the rebound from Javier Hernandez and Ciaran Clark was on hand to clear off the line as the ball threatened to cross it.

Better was to come from the excellent Clark. He found himself in the right place in the area to glance Ritchie’s perfect delivery in off the far post with 17 minutes remaining.

That crucial second arrived moments after Aleksandar Mitrovic had been introduced and he got his first goal of the season too. The Serbian had already been denied by Joe Hart once before coolly rounding the England goalkeeper and finding the empty net with four minutes remaining.

Mitrovic’s day could yet be spoiled if he faces retrospective action over an alleged elbow in the face of West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini, but his goal capped off a fantastic day for Newcastle.

Benitez has never criticised the players and is confident he can get results – but just imagine if he was able to add the players he really wants in the transfer market this week too.