Newcastle United ended their four-game Premier League winless streak after beating Leicester City 4-0 at home, handing Ruud van Nistelrooy his first defeat in charge of the Foxes.
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Jacob Murphy's calm finish got the ball rolling in the first half as Leicester struggled to contain Newcastle.
The visitors suffered another blow as goalkeeper Mads Hermansen was forced off at the break, being replaced by Danny Ward, and Newcastle promptly scored three goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half to blew the visitors away.
Bruno Guimaraes nodded home from Lewis Hall's flick-on after 47 minutes, before the full-back's brilliant low cross was headed home by Alexander Isak three minutes later.
Isak then raced through on the counter-attack to tee up Murphy for his second of the game on the hour-mark.
Newcastle are now 11th in the table and outside the top half on goal difference alone, while Leicester are 16th.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
16 | +2 | 23 |
| 12 |
Spurs
TOT
|
15 | +12 | 20 |
| 13 |
Man Utd
MUN
|
15 | +1 | 19 |
| 14 |
West Ham
WHU
|
15 | -8 | 18 |
| 15 |
Everton
EVE
|
15 | -7 | 15 |
| 16 |
Leicester
LEI
|
16 | -13 | 14 |
| 17 |
Crystal Palace
CRY
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
How the match unfolded
Newcastle dominated the opening stages, as Anthony Gordon forced a diving stop from Mads Hermansen after just seven minutes, before Dan Burn and Guimaraes headed half-chances off the target.
That proved to be a warning from hosts as Gordon cut back from the byline and Murphy calmly steered home his first goal of the season before the break.
Any chance of a Leicester fightback was extinguished soon after the restart, as Guimaraes forced Hall’s header home.
Hall deserved another assist three minutes later after helping Isak score the third, but a deflection from Conor Coady diverted the ball into the Swede’s path. Nevertheless, Isak nodded home his seventh Premier League goal of the season.
With Leicester ragged in the closing stages, Newcastle kept their ruthless edge. Murphy finished off a flowing move and Newcastle scored four Premier League goals in a game for the first time in 2024/25.
Hard-running Hall impresses
Howe has tried multiple options at left-back in his time at St James' Park, with Burn stepping across from central defence and Kieran Trippier covering as needed.
However, the rise of Hall this season appears to have solved a long-standing problem for the Newcastle boss, with the former Chelsea defender looking his best option in the role.
Defensively, the 20-year-old has shown a real appetite for one-v-one battles, but his lung-busting runs forward caused problems for Leicester throughout the game.
A nodded assist for Guimaraes' goal was his first at home this season and, despite his cross for Isak's header taking a kind deflection, his industry to constantly burst past Gordon shows how confident he is right now.
Newcastle fans will be championing his cause for the England team, while he will hope to retain his place for Newcastle's EFL Cup quarter-final against Brentford on 18 December.
Foxes fall short despite plenty of effort
Despite the final result, Van Nistelrooy will be happy by the endeavour shown by his players on Tyneside as they struggled to contain a rampant Newcastle.
Stephy Mavididi and Kasey McAteer provided attacking thrust either side of Jamie Vardy and covered plenty of ground to help out Victor Kristiansen and James Justin respectively.
The twin threat of Gordon and Murphy was clearly highlighted pre-game and, despite the Foxes defence being overrun by Newcastle attacks, Mavididi and McAteer grafted to cover gaps as part of a five-man midfield out of possession.
Mavididi was unlucky with Isak's goal as Hall's cross deflected to Isak but, on a day of few positives for Van Nistelrooy, the industry of his wide men showed their willingness to battle.
Up next for Leicester is a home match with struggling Wolves next Sunday and Mavididi and McAteer will be hoping to show their quality going forward.
Club reports
Newcastle report | Leicester report
What the managers said
Eddie Howe: "It was a good performance today. The first goal was important. It took a well-worked set play to set the ball rolling, and the second goal was important too so we were able to express ourselves a little bit more.
"We’re disappointed we haven’t been able to show that more this season. Today was up there with one of our best performances."
Ruud van Nistelrooy: "It was hard. It was 1-0 at half-time. We were a bit lucky not to be down by more goals. It's costly when you concede in such standard set-piece situations. Then it was going to be hard to turn it around.
"We know how intense Newcastle players are and the intensity in which they play. A lot of the chances they created were form our ball losses and they got quick in the counter-attack. We kept going and trying, but we have to take this one on the chin and move on."
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Key facts
Newcastle United recorded their largest win against Leicester City in the top flight of English football since 1909 (also 4-0) and have now kept clean sheets in each of their last three league fixtures against the Foxes, their joint-longest such run.
Leicester City’s defeat means that they remain on 14 points 16 matches into the 2024/25 Premier League season, their lowest tally at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 2014/15 (10).
Alexander Isak has scored in three consecutive Premier League games for the second time this season and for the fifth time since the start of the 2024/25 campaign – the Swedish striker has now scored/assisted 17 goals across his 14 league games at St. James’ Park in 2024 (13 goals, 4 assists).
Alexander Isak scored his 20th Premier League goal of 2024, just the third time a Newcastle United player has scored 20+ Premier League goals in a calendar year after Alan Shearer (22 in 1999, 27 in 2002) and Andrew Cole (24 in 1994).
