ISAAC Hayden says there is no need for Miguel Almiron to worry about being Newcastle United’s record signing because his price-tag is nothing to get excited about anyway.

It would be harsh to say that the bubble’s burst – no West Ham pun intended – for the Paraguayan after this non-performance in his first 90 minutes for his new employers.

The man who cost £21m from Atlanta United in January, a MLS record as well as a club high, was largely anonymous apart from one moment when he shanked a decent opportunity wide in the second half.

But it was a largely anonymous performance from the team itself.

Creativity and ambition levels were low following energy-sapping home wins over Huddersfield and Burnley that Almiron enjoyed far more.

Inevitably, he will be the man the fans look to for inspiration when Everton come to Tyneside on Saturday but whatever pressure the newcomer finds himself under it needn’t involve pound signs.

“Nobody talks about that in the dressing-room,” Hayden said. “When you start to play and train, the price tag goes out of the window. Nobody is really bothered.

“And let’s be honest, whatever the fee was, that amount of money in the Premier League these days really isn’t much. So with all due respect to him, because he’s a great player, but when you look at West Ham, they’ve got Anderson, £50m. We just get on with it.”

‘Just get on with it’ is probably the slogan that sums up Newcastle’s season. Rafa Benitez’s band of sweaty artisans dropped one place to 14th but still possess a six-point advantage over third-bottom Cardiff, who lost at Wolves.

West Ham had the game wrapped up before half-time thanks to two moments of defensive sloppiness. Fabian Schar was at fault in the seventh minute when he allowed Declan Rice to elude him at a corner; Mark Noble doubled the lead from the penalty spot three minutes before the break after Florian Lejeune mistimed his challenge on Javier Hernandez.

“That was very disappointing, particularly after the run we’ve been on,” Hayden admitted. “It was two very sloppy goals. The set-piece was just a simple header, just blocking off and tracking runners and the penalty was another block at the back post and then it’s 2-0.

“In Premier League games, when you’re 2-0 down before half-time it’s always an uphill battle. We dug in second half and didn’t give up, the lads kept trying, it’s just that the final ball wasn’t there today.

“We’ve been on a fabulous run of form, there have been a lot of games since Christmas and January and maybe we just ran out of steam after a long and busy week, but there are no excuses. West Ham were better than us, they were sharper to the ball.”

Rice impressed in front of Gareth Southgate’s number two Steve Holland and the former Republic of Ireland man will surely be in the next England squad later this month.

The picture with Sean Longstaff, a year older than Rice but a year behind in terms of first team experience, is now significantly different however. The midfielder,tipped for a call-up of his own, most probably at Under-21 level, left the London Stadium in crutches having been subbed at half-time, presumably the result of a reckless challenge on Robert Snodgrass that earned him a booking.

“We have to assess him in a couple of days,” Benitez said. “Obviously when you make a substitution it’s because he was feeling something.”

The league table suggests that only one relegation spot could realistically have Newcastle’s name on it but although Huddersfield look as doomed to Hayden as the rest of the planet the former Arsenal man wasn’t ruling out a dramatic Fulham revival.

“You look at West Brom last year and everyone thought they were down, out and completely gone and then Darren Moore came in and took them to the brink of survival,” he said.

“Scott Parker, another good young coach, knows Fulham and the players – you just never know in football. As a collective, we just have to keep our foot on the gas, especially at home where we have our own fans behind us.”

Benitez was keen to point out that his side actually mustered 17 shots over 90 minutes, although only Salomon Rondon’s late free-kick against a post caused Lucasz Fabianski any real concern in the West Ham goal.

“When you see the stats we had 17 attempts when we played away, and they had 10,” he said. “The difference is they can pass the ball, and especially when you are 2-0 down they are quite dangerous passing the ball and going in behind you. That was what happened.

“We had the chances to score; people will say: ‘Oh, you didn’t test the keeper too much.’ Yeah, but we were there, we had good positions, we were shooting and their defenders were blocking. We had two or three situations which could have changed everything. The main thing for me is that we didn’t start the game in the way we have to do it, and we paid for that.”