Reuters
Newcastle United's Jacob Murphy celebrates scoring their first goal [Source: Reuters]
Newcastle United thumped Crystal Palace 5-0 at St James’ Park on Wednesday to go third in the Premier League table with a sixth consecutive win in all competitions as Jacob Murphy scored one goal and set up another.
Newcastle have 59 points from 32 games and are five points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification next season with the top five teams earning a place. Palace have 43 points and are 12th.
Harvey Barnes, Fabian Schar and Alexander Isak also scored for Newcastle, as the visitors’ night was compounded by an own goal from defender Marc Guehi and a missed penalty by Eberechi Eze when they trailed 1-0.
Newcastle were again without manager Eddie Howe in the dugout as he continues to recover from pneumonia, but the performance would have been just the tonic as they scored some excellent goals and were ruthless in punishing Palace errors.
“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.”
It was the first time Palace have failed to score in 13 Premier League fixtures, though remarkably their expected goals tally of 2.02 was better than that of Newcastle (1.39).
Newcastle opened the scoring on 14 minutes through Murphy’s thunderous shot from a tight angle that beat goalkeeper Dean Henderson high at his near post.
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