Southampton 1-4 Newcastle: Toon up to third with devastating win down South
Another emphatic victory for Eddie Howe's Mags, as the Toon won with ease at a soaked St Mary's.
Miguel Almiron (who else?) broke the deadlock before the break, with Chris Wood and Joe Willock both scoring their first goals of the season to make sure of all three points after a period of Southampton pressure.
The win sends us up to third - yes, THIRD - in the Premier League on a day where Manchester United lost at Aston Villa, taking us four clear of the Red Devils in fifth. With that in mind, Newcastle United WILL spend the World Cup break in the Champions League places.
One concern was Callum Wilson's withdrawal at the break, with Miguel Almiron also limping off with what looked like a late muscle injury. It's thought Wilson made way through illness, but a real shame for him to miss out on the goals as England boss Gareth Southgate watched on from the stands.
Howe made one change for this one, seeing Jacob Murphy return to the starting 11 in place of the suspended Joelinton and the fit-again Allan Saint-Maximin settle for a place on the bench alongside Jonjo Shelvey.
Southampton started with a decent intensity and didn't really let us settle. Things weren't quite clicking for us in the final third - we wasted chances from a few decent crossing opportunities, mistimed runs and missed a big chance through Longstaff - but began to finally assert our dominance just after the half hour mark.
Then, 10 minutes before the break, the inevitable happened. Miguel Almiron scored! After breaking past Wilson after some good work from Trippier and Longstaff, the Paraguayan sat down Ainsley Maitland-Niles and rolled a calm left-footed finish past Gavin Bazunu. Brilliant celebrations followed in the away end as the prolific South American reeled away in celebration. 1-0 Newcastle and SEVEN goal in six games for Miggy!
Moments later some good build up play resulted in a decent chance for Sean Longstaff, who headed over on the stretch from a Joe Willock cross. The latter is yet to score this season, but it was an all action first half from the former Arsenal midfielder.
For all of our good work after the half hour mark, we very nearly went in at 1-1. Stuart Armstrong found himself in acres of space down the right and whipped a ball to the back post. Mohamed Elyounoussi beat Trippier to it and looked destined to score, only to fire just wide of Pope's far post. A huge let off, but another scare followed as Kieran Trippier went into the break holding his hamstring; a sight Gareth Southgate did not want to see as he watched from the stands at St Mary's.
Thankfully, the England full-back was able to continue, but Callum Wilson was not. It wasn't clear why our number nine was withdrawn - he had been suffering with illness through the week - but his afternoon was over as Chris Wood took his place up top.
A real shame to see him forced off, especially when we were likely to find more space in behind as Southampton pushed for an equaliser.
The home side made a fast start to the second half, seeing us survive a few mini scares as a Dan Burn block and strong claim from Nick Pope kept us ahead. We needed to get our foot on the ball and reassert out dominance, but had lost our grip of the game in midfield, also lacking that outlet in attack now Wilson was off.
Sven Botman had been mopping up potentially awkward situations with ease until he too let sloppiness sneak into his game, giving Southampton another half chance after giving away the ball in a bad area.
It was another big let off, but one we survived before a chance of our own fell at the other end - and Chris Wood did not disappoint! He needed to step up in Wilson's absence and the Kiwi did exactly that, curling a right-footed effort into the far corner after some good work in the box from Murphy. 2-0 Newcastle and another would soon follow!
This time it was Trippier who turned provider, threading a brilliant ball in behind for the relentless Willock. He hadn't scored all season before today but took his goal with ease, prodding past Bazunu while running at speed to make it 3-0.
Jonjo Shelvey then replaced Jacob Murphy - moving Willock out wide - and he too was then withdrawn with 20 minutes remaining, giving Allan Saint-Maximin another run out from the bench. Miguel Almiron pulled up with 78 on the clock, allowing Howe to make a double change. Elliot Anderson replaced Miggy and Trippier's hamstring was protected, seeing the rarely-seen Javier Manquillo come on at right-back.
The Saints then grabbed a consolation in the 88th minute, as Perraud cut in from the left, took advantage of some sloppy defending from Manquillo and Anderson before firing into the top corner to ruin Pope's clean sheet. However, it didn't take us long to hit back, as Bruno Guimaraes curled in from range after a give and go with Saint-Maximin to make it 4-1!
Full time and a convincing 4-1 win for Eddie Howe's Mags. It wasn't always pretty, but emphatic finishing and another huge effort from all involved proved too much, with Sean Longstaff deserving a special mention for the enormous shift he put in at both ends.
Next up, Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday followed by Chelsea at home in our final match before the World Cup break!
STARTING XI: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Guimaraes, Longstaff, Willock, Almiron, Wilson, Murphy.
SUBS: Darlow, Lascelles, Shelvey, Saint-Maximin, Targett, Manquillo, Wood, Fraser, Anderson.
