Newcastle fans celebrate at Ipswich
Newcastle United ended a perfect win with three wins in all competitions after they strolled to a 4-0 victory against Ipswich Town at Portman Road.
Alexander Isak scored a hat-trick - the striker has scored in four successive Premier League matches. Jacob Murphy also got on the scoresheet as he lashed home the second goal.
When asked about the Swedish striker after the match, head coach Eddie Howe said: "He is motivated and he wants to do well. He has big aspirations for his career. He is still relatively young and still has a bright future ahead of him.
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"I know his desire to score goals is second to none. Every conversation I had about Newcastle concerning his future with him has been very positive. I would love for him, and other players, to be the man who contributes to us winning a trophy. That is the aim."
Here is how the national media reacted to Newcastle's win:
Nick Ames, The Guardian
Sir Bobby Robson adored both of these clubs but, in their first Premier League meeting since his passing, it was Newcastle whose display would have made the old master’s eyes twinkle. A second four-goal victory in the space of a week suggests that, even allowing for their opposition’s failings, they are clicking into serious form. Sterner tests will come but, as advertisements for their attacking gifts go, this was enough to set Geordie mouths watering over Christmas.
In Alexander Isak they have one of the most thrilling talents around and arguably the division’s most varied finisher. It does not always click for the Swede but a hat-trick here, the first from a Newcastle player for five and a half years, was taken with the panache of a player on top of his game. Isak has scored nine in his last nine top-flight appearances; when he is on song Eddie Howe’s team rightly feel capable of anything
He was certainly given the platform to show it. Put bluntly, this was men against boys. It was Ipswich’s most chastening defeat of a season in which they have run almost everyone close and, if this proves the worst things get at Portman Road, then perhaps their relegation battle is not ill starred. But they were barely involved amid teeming rain, beyond an improved 10-minute spell before Jacob Murphy thrashed in Newcastle’s second, and a productive January transfer window looks essential for the chances of a squad whose thinness was exposed here.
Jon West, The Telegraph
If Eddie Howe gets his wish Alexander Isak will help Newcastle United end their lengthy trophy drought. His fear, and that if the Geordie nation, however is that he will become a club record sale before that can happen.
As the January transfer window looms nearer, the 25-year-old striker enhanced an already-growing reputation by helping himself to a hat-trick, his first for the club and a first for anyone at Newcastle since 2019. More accurately, Ipswich Town helped him help himself to it, so inept was their defending from the very first minute. Former Norwich man Jacob Murphy, supplier of two assists, was the other scorer.
The goals, the first coming in 26 seconds,. brought Isak's total for the season to 11 in all competitions, 10 of which have come in the last 11 games. The previous season he netted 25 goals in 40 appearances and on joining from Real Sociedad for £65 million in August 2022 his debut season garnered 10 in 27 games.
No wonder a number of other clubs, Arsenal included, cover the Sweden striker and are prepared to spend big, something Howe himself has been unable to do for a while because of tightened financial regulations.
Michael Emons, BBC Sport
Alexander Isak scored a hat-trick as Newcastle United thrashed Ipswich Town, who remain without a home league win this season. The visitors only needed 26 seconds to score after the hosts had kicked off.
For Newcastle, it rounded off a fantastic week that had already seen them beat Leicester City 4-0 and reach the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup with a 3-1 success over Brentford. Isak's hat-trick takes him to 10 Premier League goals this season, only three behind the top scorers – Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Manchester City's Erling Haaland are on 13 apiece.
It will not get any easier for Town either as they play at Arsenal on 27 December before a home game against Chelsea three days' later. Meanwhile, Newcastle, who played in the Champions League last season but missed out on European qualification for the 2024-25 campaign, secured one of their easiest wins of the campaign.
Zinny Boswell, Sky Sports
Alexander Isak scored his first Premier League hat-trick as Newcastle wrapped up a perfect week by thrashing Ipswich 4-0 at Portman Road to move into seventh. Having scored four goals against Leicester last Saturday and beaten Brentford on Wednesday to reach the Carabao Cup semi-finals, Newcastle came into this game full of confidence and outclassed Ipswich, still waiting for their first home league win of the season.
Newcastle came flying out of the traps and scored 25 seconds in through Isak as he smashed in the opener after Jacob Murphy's cross bounced back to him inside the box, although the goal was not awarded until at least two minutes later due to a lengthy VAR check. Murphy, once again a stand-out performer for Newcastle, powered in their second after half an hour, taking him to three goals in two league games - as many as he scored in his previous 37 appearances.
Ipswich goalkeeper Arijanet Muric's silly decision to go short to Jens Cajuste was punished just before the break as Bruno Guimaraes, the Newcastle captain, forced a turnover inside the box and allowed Isak to roll in for his second.
Isak's hat-trick was complete after a miraculous back-heel assist from Murphy, showing great feet to evade a swarm of Ipswich defenders in the box before laying it on a plate for his striker, who left Portman Road with the match ball after his first treble for Newcastle. Ipswich will remain in the bottom three over Christmas after suffering their heaviest home defeat since April 2018, while Newcastle momentarily move up to seventh, having started the weekend in the bottom half of the table.
Lee Ryder, ChronicleLive
Alexander Isak was warmly applauded off at a chilly Portman Road after becoming the first Newcastle United player to grab a hat-trick since Ayoze Perez - five years earlier.
Perez's treble against Southampton half a decade ago helped Newcastle stabilise themselves in the top-flight, but here Eddie Howe's side hauled themselves right back into the European race. Isak had started the day as he meant to go on with a goal after 25 seconds but his superb display was not only enjoyed by the travelling 3,200 fans from Tyneside, but also respected by some Ipswich fans.
As Isak left the field some home fans offered the type of sporting applause Sir Bobby Robson would have appreciated. It may not have been Ipswich's day here but the game was contested in the type of spirit the ex-Newcastle and Town manager used to love.
And Sir Bobby would have absolutely loved it! Of that there can be no doubt.
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