Newcastle United delivered a dominant display at St James’ Park on Wednesday, dismantling Crystal Palace 5-0 to climb to third in the Premier League standings.
The Magpies secured a sixth straight win across all competitions, with Jacob Murphy starring by scoring once and providing an assist.
Now on 59 points from 32 matches, Newcastle have opened up a five-point cushion over sixth-placed Chelsea in the hunt for next season’s Champions League, with the top five guaranteed a spot. Crystal Palace, meanwhile, remain in 12th place with 43 points.
The scoring spree saw Harvey Barnes, Fabian Schar, and Alexander Isak all find the net for the hosts, while Palace’s misery deepened through Marc Guehi’s own goal and a squandered penalty from Eberechi Eze when the score was still 1-0.
Although manager Eddie Howe was again absent due to pneumonia, his side showed no signs of missing him, firing on all cylinders and capitalizing on Palace’s costly mistakes.
“We have spoken about building on the recent results and today was a good example of that,” Barnes told Premier League Productions.
“He (Murphy) is playing unbelievable. He is such a character in the changing room and in great form.
“We are focussing on our job and the task at hand and making sure the manager (Howe) is proud of the results. We are so well drilled and know our roles going into each game.”
For the first time in 13 league outings, Palace failed to find the net, though their expected goals (xG) stood at 2.02—surprisingly higher than Newcastle’s 1.39.
Murphy opened the floodgates in the 14th minute, unleashing a fierce strike from a tight angle that beat Dean Henderson at his near post.
Palace were handed a chance to equalize when a VAR review ruled that Newcastle keeper Nick Pope fouled Chris Richards while attempting to punch a free-kick. However, Eze’s tame penalty was easily saved by Pope, his first spot-kick stop in five years.
“I can’t remember the last time Eze missed a penalty,” Guehi told Sky Sports. “It happens. When he scores, no one says anything. We just have to move on.”
Almost instantly after the miss, Newcastle extended their lead. Barnes’ cross took a wicked deflection off Guehi and left Henderson helpless as the ball rolled in for 2-0 in the 38th minute.
The hosts struck again twice in stoppage time before the break. Barnes finished off a blistering counter-attack initiated by Sandro Tonali, before Schar nodded in Murphy’s cross for a fourth.
Isak capped the performance in style on 58 minutes, receiving the ball after Joelinton outmuscled Maxence Lacroix and bending a low shot into the far corner from 25 yards out.
