An easy night for Newcastle as Murphy bags brace - Leicester 0-3 Newcastle

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!