Newcastle United stormed up to seventh in the league with a thumping 4-0 victory over Ipswich Town at Portman Road on Saturday afternoon, as Alexander Isak notched his first hat-trick for the club.
A reborn Jacob Murphy supported the Swede superbly as the Magpies cut through the Tractor Boys time and time again in soaking wet conditions down in Suffolk.
In truth, Eddie Howe's side could've won by more, with Isak, Anthony Gordon, and Bruno Guimarães all missing chances to score and Dan Burn seeing a late goal narrowly chalked off.
Regardless, though, this result capped a magic week for Newcastle, in which we've scored 11 and conceded just a solitary consolation to Brentford on our way to three wins in eight days.
Our mercurial head coach appears to have ridden out the storm, thankfully. Everyone of a black and white persuasion is now looking up the table and, hopefully, having a very Merry Christmas!
Here's how we scored it:
Advertisement
0 Murphy
Serena Taylor/Newcastle United
Murphy was most definitely feeling juicy today and put in a pretty perfect performance on the right
The Good
Eddie Howe has come in for plenty of criticism this season—some of it deserved—but he's navigated us through a tricky period brilliantly. He's gotten his rewards this week with three fantastic wins, and we hope he can keep leading us to new heights. If he's able to be supported in the January market, then we've still got a real chance of doing something special this season.
To the head coach's credit, this might've been Jacob Murphy's finest afternoon in a Newcastle shirt. He effectively set up the first goal with his low cross, smashed home the second himself, and got what could well be the assist of the season for Alexander Isak's hat-trick goal. We've criticised him plenty since we started doing these ratings, but he was top-class today. He must've been feeling well juicy.
Speaking of Alexander Isak, it feels incredibly harsh not to award him Man of the Match after his first hat-trick in our colours. He took all three of his goals superbly but also missed a massive chance at 1-0, while he wasn't as impactful in the contest as a whole as Murphy was. Amazingly, the Swede is now just one goal behind Callum Wilson in our all-time top scorers list.
If Murphy and Isak played almost perfect games, Bruno Guimarães wasn't too far off. He looks revitalised playing in a more advanced role outside of Sandro Tonali and got a hard-earned assist for Isak's third goal when pressing high and winning a tackle on Jens Cajuste. He should've scored when shouldering Lewis Hall's brilliant cross off the far post, mind!
While he was sloppy in possession at times, this was a masterclass in defensive midfield play from our midfield maestro from Milano. Sandro Tonali looks a completely different proposition now he's being played deeper, with his positional awareness among the best we've ever seen. He's played three great games in a week and deserves massive credit for that.
At the back, Dan Burn and Fabian Schär dovetailed nicely again. Schär pinged a wonderful long pass out to Murphy in the build-up to the first goal and made a massive tackle on Al-Hamadi in the second half to help earn the clean sheet. Brun was naturally a lot less secure in possession and did get caught out in behind once or twice, but he defended calmly overall.
Outside of them, Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall also had solid afternoons without being at their sparkling best. Tino took a while to find his footing in the match and was beaten a couple of times in the early going, but he recovered to put in an assured display. Hall should've had an assist when Bruno shouldered his excellent cross against the post and the left-back also made a crucial block on Al-Hamadi to help grind out the clean sheet.
Behind those four, Martin Dúbravka has had a very nice reintroduction to life between the posts for the Magpies. He did have to make one big first-half save from Szmodics but otherwise had a very peaceful afternoon, with Ipswich only mustering another two shots on target.
Of the substitutes, Kieran Trippier, Sean Longstaff, and Lewis Miley all made positive contributions to help us see the latter stages of the game out comfortably, with Trippier the most heavily involved of the trio. Longy pinged one gorgeous long pass out to the left, while it was just smashing to see Miley back on the pitch after so long.
Finally, some begrudged credit to Stuart Atwell. It's not like the referee had too much to do, but he seemed to get the majority of decisions right and did very little to annoy us.
Advertisement
05
Serena Taylor/Newcastle United
After scoring his first NUFC hat-trick, Isak is now just one goal behind Callum Wilson in our all-time list
The Bad
Joe Willock sacrificed himself for the cause in the way that he stuck to Sam Morsy like glue to help prevent Ipswich from being able to play out from the back, but he didn't have a great afternoon. He was involved in the opening goal, at least, but really should have scored himself to make it 5-0 when firing over wildly from just 12 yards out with the net gaping.
It wasn't a good afternoon for Anthony Gordon, either, not that it mattered much. Like Willock, he put plenty of effort in off the ball, but he missed a great headed chance at 1-0 and later failed to convert at 4-0 after showing good composure to get himself a free shot. His sloppiness in possession was our major bugbear, though, with some really poor passes.
He's not under much pressure from Harvey Barnes on this showing, however, with the former Leicester winger smashing one volley miles over the bar that he should have hit the target with. Barnes was also far too unselfish at the end when trying to square the ball instead of shooting, which seemed to be much the better option.
And we know they were missing their main man up front, but Ipswich Town were comfortably the worst team we've played this season. Only Cajuste looked like a Premier League player and they were lucky this only ended up 0-4, as it could've been a fair few more.
Advertisement
0 Bruno
Serena Taylor/Newcastle United
Bruno looks like he's enjoying being back in a more advanced role and provided another assist today
The Average
It's a lonely entry into this section for Miguel Almirón, who got just 21 minutes on the pitch and only managed ten touches. He completed all eight of his passes and made some good runs that sadly weren't found by his teammates.
Advertisement
01
Serena Taylor/Newcastle United
We can't have had many weeks in our history where we've beaten our opponents 11-1 on aggregate
The Breakdown
We hope you enjoy our highest collective ratings of the season!
The XI
Martin Dúbravka – 7
Tino Livramento – 7 (off 64')
Fabian Schär – 9
Dan Burn – 8
Lewis Hall – 8
Bruno Guimarães (c) – 9 (off 80')
Sandro Tonali – 8
Joe Willock – 5 (off 64')
Jacob Murphy – 10 ⭐️ (off 64')
Alexander Isak – 10 (off 73')
Anthony Gordon – 5
The Subs
Kieran Trippier – 7 (on 64')
Harvey Barnes – 5 (on 64')
Sean Longstaff – 7 (on 64')
Miguel Almirón – 6 (on 73')
Lewis Miley – 7 (on 80')
The Gaffer
Eddie Howe – 9
The Opposition
Ipswich Town – 2
The Ref
Stuart Atwell – 8
06
Getty Images
Let's have a repeat of these scenes on Boxing Day, eh? We'd absolutely love to batter Aston Villa again
The Next
It's a tasty-looking clash with Aston Villa at St James' on Boxing Day (Thursday). Amazon Prime has all the fixtures again, so that's where you'll find it at 3 p.m. (GMT).
We're still emotionally scarred from Chris Wood's hat-trick on that day a year ago. Let's hope for much better against one of our least-liked opponents this time out.
Howay the lads!