Newcastle United continued its winning streak and secured its fifth league victory in a row against Crystal Palace. With a 5-0 win in the rescheduled match of the 29th matchday, the Magpies also jumped to third place.
At Newcastle, where assistant coach Jason Tindall replaced Eddie Howe due to illness, as he did in the 4-1 win over Manchester United, the same starting lineup took the field for the sixth game in a row. Given the team’s recent run of five wins in a row, there was no reason to change anything.
Eze misses miserably – Newcastle increases the lead
Newcastle started strongly and could have taken an early lead through Isak, but he was denied by the strong Henderson and then headed just over the bar (7th, 9th). The home side repeatedly played down the right wing through Murphy, who then scored a spectacular goal from a tight angle to give his side a deserved lead (14th).
Crystal Palace, who had hardly shown anything up to that point, were then awarded a penalty in the 34th minute after Pope brought down former Munich player Richards from a free kick. However, Eze squandered this huge chance miserably with an almost arrogant low pass into the right-hand corner (36).
And that was to come back to haunt them. Almost immediately afterwards, an unfortunate own goal by Guehi, who tried to clear a cross from Barnes, made it 2-0 (38). Barnes added another goal on a counterattack (45+2) and Schär scored with a header from a free kick (45+8) to make it 3-0 before the break.
Isak capitalizes on Lacroix error
Things didn’t get much better for Crystal Palace after the break. Henderson was able to save another shot from Isak (51′), but seven minutes later he was left helpless after Lacroix lost possession to the Swedish striker (58′). Meanwhile, nothing went right for Crystal Palace, partly because their own players were either in the way in front of goal (63′) or the pitch was slippery (90′).
Both teams are back in action on Saturday. Newcastle United are away to Aston Villa (6:30 p.m.), while Crystal Palace face AFC Bournemouth (4 p.m.).
