Newcastle 4-0 Leicester (December 14, 2024) Match analysis

Newcastle United striker Jacob Murphy scored a goal in each half as his side beat Leicester City 4-0 in their Premier League clash at St James’ Park on Saturday after the Foxes scored early in the second half suffered a defensive collapse.

The 52,235 home fans in attendance were treated to 90 minutes of the swashbuckling football they love as their side rose to 11th in the table with 23 points, while Leicester are in 16th with 14.

Newcastle dominated throughout, keeping Leicester keeper Mads Hermansen busy in the first half, and the home side needed a well-worked set-piece to take the lead from the edge of the box.

Hermansen was replaced in goal by Danny Ward at half-time, causing Leicester’s resistance to collapse.

Photo by George Wood/Getty Images

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Newcastle went ahead twice early in the second half with another perfectly executed set piece as Lewis Hall headed the ball back across goal for Bruno Guimarães to head home.

Their third goal came shortly afterwards when Conor Coady’s attempted free throw brought Hall’s cross only into the path of Isak, who stopped to nod the cross into the net.

Murphy should have done better when Isak set him up in the 52nd minute but he missed the target, but he made no mistake on the hour mark when Isak found him again on the right and drove the ball through Ward’s legs for the goal to meet him 4:0.

Newcastle’s attack never let up and although they were unable to score another goal, they ended up with a total of 27 shots on target, 11 of which were on target.

Leicester managed four goals, with only one of them coming to Magpies keeper Martin Dúbravka, as they suffered an embarrassing defeat – Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first since taking over as manager.

“It was a big challenge to get here and when you give away goals from set pieces we are doing ourselves a disservice. We could improve the structure in which we want to play with the ball. We are in a process of two weeks together,” the Dutch coach told the BBC.

His counterpart Eddie Howe was pleased that the hard work on the training ground was paying off.

“The first goal was important, it took a well-worked set-piece to get the ball rolling and the second goal was important too, allowing us to express ourselves a bit more,” he told the BBC.

“We are disappointed that we couldn’t show that more this season. Today was one of our better performances.”