Harvey Barnes scored twice as Newcastle put a sorry Manchester United to the sword without the ill Eddie Howe in the dugout.
After dominating for a large portion of the first half, Sandro Tonali’s crisply taken volley – from a superb Alexander Isak pass – gave Newcastle the lead they deserved midway through the opening period, and there was genuine shock when Alejandro Garnacho poked the visitors level against the run of play in the 37th minute.
Newcastle then deservedly retook their lead just four minutes into the second half when Tino Livramento’s excellent burst into the box found Jacob Murphy, whose precise cut back was fired in by Barnes. Fifteen minutes later Barnes pickpocketed Noussair Mazraoui and thrillingly burst into the box to make it 3-1.
United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, brought into the side for the dropped Andre Onana, then passed a ball straight out to Joelinton, who found Bruno Guimaraes to make it four.
The desperate visitors, who lost Joshua Zirkzee to a hamstring injury, will now seek to pick themselves up for Thursday’s Europa League tie against Lyon, but on this showing that will be difficult. Here are the game’s main talking points.
As Jurgen Klopp once said, football always seems the most important of the least important things in life, but it always takes something like Howe’s illness to put everything into perspective. The Newcastle boss wasn’t on the touchline at St James’ Park, but he was in the home fans’ thoughts.
Assistant Jason Tindall addressed the media before the game and stated that he’s “sure” Howe will be back in action soon, and hopefully that proves to be the case.
We knew all about Ruben Amorim’s decision to drop Onana before the game, with the United boss opting to throw Bayindir between the posts for his first ever Premier League game.
On BBC Radio 5 Live the former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson insisted that Amorim will now go with Bayindir as his first choice, but then came that calamitous kick straight to Joelinton before Newcastle’s fourth, so surely he can’t do that now? This was a case of different goalkeeper, same problems.
Everything about Tonali’s opener was lovely, and while the crispness of the Italian’s finish was something to behold, the weight, angle and pace of the Isak pass was good enough to eulogise over by itself.
The Swede may have a list of suitors that basically reads like a who’s who of top level club football, but the only side in complete control of his destiny are the ones he currently plays for. Get in the Champions League and he is going nowhere.
And the Champions League looks like where Newcastle are heading after this, especially after Chelsea’s wretched result at home to Ipswich allowed them to jump up into fourth place with a game in hand, which comes at home to Crystal Palace on Wednesday.
Win that and they’ll be third, above Nottingham Forest, and right now it really is difficult to argue that the Magpies aren’t the third best team in the country. They were excellent here, have timed their run superbly and a return to European football’s top table beckons.
No really. What can you say about them? Those of us who do this sort of thing for a living realise that we are very fortunate to do so, but every so often you just have to hold your hands up and say that there really is nothing worthwhile you can contribute to the debate any more.
Seriously, try it. Impossible isn’t it? Players, manager, system, everything. Just, what is it? Where is it going? When will it get there? Will we know what it looks like when it does? Oh well, Lyon on Thursday night. We’ll all tune in won’t we.
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