Newcastle’s Jacob Murphy gives Van Nistelrooy a sobering lesson in Leicester | Premier League

Only time will tell whether Ruud van Nistelrooy’s honeymoon as Leicester manager ended here or was merely interrupted. Likewise, it is still far too early to predict whether this will be seen as a turning point in Newcastle’s stuttering season so far, but after four games without a win, Eddie Howe’s players have certainly managed to make light of suggestions that he might be destined to do so to make for the sack.

While Howe recently celebrated his third anniversary as manager at St James’ Park, Van Nistelrooy suffered his first defeat in three games since taking over at Leicester. The 48-year-old must have wished he was still wearing his old shooting boots instead of watching in increasing dismay from the edge of the technical area.

As a striker for Manchester United, Van Nistelrooy scored 11 goals in 10 games against Newcastle. No other opponent suffered so persistently from their attacking threat, but now, on a cold, damp December day, it was the Dutchman’s turn to feel the pain.

Jacob Murphy had already wasted a very presentable shooting chance when his first right-footed shot from the edge of the box flew past the slightly wrong-footed Mads Hermansen after a clever short corner routine that culminated in Anthony Gordon’s clever cutback.

Although the hosts initially struggled to get going, Leicester were clearly missing the muscle-bound, absent Wilfred Ndidi and his recent stabilizing influence in midfield, and they failed to retain the ball well enough to gain a real counter-attack advantage. At the time of Murphy’s 30th-minute breakthrough, Leicester appeared to be in an untenable back-to-the-wall mode, and Van Nistelrooy appeared to be in a central midfield department with the recalled Hamza Choudhury, often dominated by Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali was dictated, clearly unimpressed.

Leicester’s coach replaced Hermansen with Danny Ward at the break and almost immediately the new signing found himself picking the ball out of his net after Bruno Guimarães nodded the ball out of his reach after a free-kick was headed over by Gordon was impressive left-back Lewis Hall.

Ward barely had time to dust himself off before he was beaten by another header. The goalscorer this time was Alexander Isak, the Swedish striker taking pleasure in fending off a deflected cross from the overlapping hall.

At this point, Martin Dubravka, replacing the injured Nick Pope in the home goal, was still not required to make a save, but when Kasey McAteer finally fired a shot, it proved so harmless that the Slovakian goalkeeper probably could have stopped it in his sleep can .

Poor Ward was quickly rendered powerless as Murphy’s second goal of the game, another first-time shot fired after some fancy footwork from Isak’s side confusing the defender, went through his legs.

It was more than satisfactory in making amends for last Saturday’s disappointing 4-2 defeat at Brentford, but Howe knows things could well get a little more difficult when Thomas Frank’s side travel to Tyneside for the Carabao Cup quarter-final on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, Van Nistelrooy has a lot to think about. At the final whistle it was interesting to see him walk over to Miguel Almirón, an unused home substitute who is due to leave Newcastle in January, and whisper something into Paraguay’s front ear, who initially looked rather startled but then smiled.