Newcastle capitalised on a weekend of positive results elsewhere with a dominant 3-0 victory at Leicester, making it four wins in a row in all competitions to boost our Champions League hopes once again.
We saw a Jacob Murphy brace to take him up to 18 goal involvements for 2024/25, Fabian Schar go within inches of a goal-of-the-season contender and Harvey Barnes score on his return to the King Power before a non-event played out in a comfortable second 45.
On a night where our Under-21s won 7-1 at St James’ Park, a big win for our senior stars moves us back up to fifth, above Aston Villa and Man City and back level with Chelsea; all with a game in hand on our rivals.
Howe named an unchanged side, although Joe Willock missed out through concussion and Anthony Gordon didn’t make it as he continues to recover from heavy bruising picked up with England.
Starting XI (4-3-3): Pope – Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento – Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton – Murphy, Isak, Barnes.
Subs: Dubravka, Ruddy, Wilson, Targett, Krafth, Osula, Longstaff, Miley, Neave.
Leicester had lost 14 of their last 15 and they started like a side with zero confidence; and were very quickly punished within just two minutes.
Murphy’s opener came from more nice combination play between Barnes and Livramento. It was all too easy from a Leicester perspective, but Tino did brilliantly to arrive on the overlap and put it on a plate for Murphy at the back post with another lovely left-footed cross.
1-0 then turned into 2-0 less than 10 minutes later and it very nearly featured a goal of the season from Schar. He nicked the ball in his own half, spotted the keeper off his line and clipped the bar with an incredible effort from range. And while others were admiring it, Murphy reacted first, took a touch and smashed in to make it two!
WOW! What an effort from Fabian Schär! 😱
Jacob Murphy is there to put it away 👏 pic.twitter.com/gVHfAG79Wu
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 7, 2025
Barnes went close moments later as Coady blocked his goal-bound effort and Leicester could barely string a pass together while Bruno and Tonali ran the show in the opening 30 minutes.
It was a training game at this point and we made it 3-0 before the break. This time it was Barnes getting in on the act against his former club, reacting first after Joelinton ghosted past Faes and saw his effort parried back into danger.
Isak fired two efforts just wide and Leicester almost pulled one back before the break as Daka’s shot from just outside the box hit both posts before falling straight back to Pope!
We made no changes at the break but Howe did rest a few legs in the second half, with Joelinton – one yellow card from a two-game ban – and Bruno replaced by Lewis Miley and Sean Longstaff with 25 minutes remaining.
After a rampant first 45, we were sloppy on the ball in the second and playing like a side who knew it was already game over against a Leicester side who hadn’t scored at home since early December.
Schar had another effort from range and we wasted a few chance to make it four, first with Isak’s sloppy pass to Murphy and again as Osula fired over shortly after he and Wilson replaced Isak and Murphy in attack.
Howe then protected Trippier by bringing on Emil Krafth for the closing stages, ensuring the 34-year-old got through unscathed after feeling his groin in last week’s win over Brentford.
So, a convincing win without ever getting out of third gear, a clean sheet, back up to fifth, no injuries to report and four wins on the spin ahead of back to back home games against Man Utd and Crystal Palace.
Howay the lads!
Good write up Olly.
Awful performance. Yes, we won, because Leicester were absolutely atrocious, but I don’t like to see that kind of sloppy, negative performance, especially how we played in the second half. We must get more ruthless. Bruno needs to stop ballet dancing and falling down … we could’ve had 6 or more tonight if we’d have been ar..sed
Pleased with the win, but disappointed we didn’t take advantage and boost our gd even more.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Have to agree Gilly, a win is great but we were not in top gear, could of got at least 2 more goals which would help a lot.
kimtoon(Quote)
This blog has gone super quiet. Where’s Sharpy and the others who used to post regularly?
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Your right Gilly don’t get how the blog has gone dead. ‘Back in the day’ even during closed season we discussed all kinds of topics. Still think we miss people like ‘Eric’
Oh dear I’m starting sound old ‘back in my day’
I could of understood if we were playing rubbish and were going nowhere ‘Which we did for most of the time’ Now we win 0-3 and we moan we should do better.
nutmag(Quote)
Aye Nutmag, I still wonder what happened to Eric. I always thought he had a few different personas and posted under different names. Under Toonsy, there would be hundreds of comments to a thread sometimes. 🤷🏻♂️
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Gilly I know that Eric used to post as G.S. (his real initials) on Worky,s, and I found it strange that Stuart79 didn’t post after Eric went. Seeing as they ‘met up in Chicargo’ ???
nutmag(Quote)