Newcastle United sealed a fifth successive win in all competitions as they enjoyed a 4-1 win over a poor Manchester United side. Look back at the best facts and analyse the Opta data on our Newcastle vs Man Utd stats page.
Newcastle United moved back into the top four with a 4-1 win over Manchester United at St James’ Park. Goals from Harvey Barnes (2), Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães secured an impressive victory and compounded more misery on their underachieving visitors.
After Chelsea’s failure to win earlier in the day, Newcastle now have a two-point cushion between themselves and the Blues in sixth place, with the top five places now guaranteed to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League league phase.
Man Utd started the game without André Onana in goal – the first Premier League game that he’s not started since arriving at the club ahead of 2023-24. Following some high-profile errors, Ruben Amorim decided to take Onana out of the firing line, with Altay Bayindir given his first Premier League start. He would have hoped that his full league debut would have gone better than this.
Eddie Howe was absent for the game following his health scare earlier in the week, but Newcastle certainly tried to put a smile on his face with a dominant performance.
Tonali opened the scoring in the 24th minute. The Italian received an excellent ball over the defence via Alexander Isak and volleyed the ball into the corner for his second goal in three Premier League appearances. It was hardly a surprise that it was Newcastle who scored first in this match, with Man Utd now conceding the opening goal in a Premier League game on 19 occasions this season: their joint-most in a single campaign in the competition (alongside 2013-14).
Man Utd equalised just 13 minutes later, with a quick attack finished off by Alejandro Garnacho. After a surging run from Diogo Dalot into the attacking third of the pitch, Garnacho received the ball before slotting past Nick Pope. It was a much-needed goal for the 20-year-old, having only scored once across his previous 28 competitive appearances for the Red Devils.
But Newcastle retook the lead just four minutes into the second half, as Barnes scored his first competitive home goal since 1 September. After excellent work from Tino Livramento on the left, his cross reached the back post, where Jacob Murphy cut back for Barnes to tap into the net from close range.
That strike meant that Barnes has been directly involved in a goal in each of his last four league appearances, equalling the longest run of his career in the Premier League. For the assister Murphy, he’s now created 10 goals from open play for the Magpies in the competition this season, becoming the first player to do that in the competition for the club since Laurent Robert in 2001-02 (11).
Barnes scored his second and Newcastle’s third midway through the second half, robbing Noussair Mazraoui of the ball and storming into the box before placing the ball into the top corner of the Man Utd net. Barnes became only the second Newcastle player to score a brace against Manchester United in the Premier League, along with Alan Shearer in December 2000.
Guimarães added his name to the scoresheet in the 77th minute to made it 4-1 and help Newcastle score four goals in a Premier League game against Man Utd for the first time since September 2001 (4-3 win). To make matters worse for Amorim, his goalkeeper Bayindir was at fault for the goal, with his lazy pass intercepted by Joelinton’s head before the ball found his compatriot to score.
Manchester United’s terrible league season continues, as they sit in 14th place with 38 points and only six games left to play. Newcastle became the fourth different side to beat them both home and away in the Premier League this season – Man Utd haven’t suffered two league defeats against this many clubs in a league campaign since 1957-58 (also 4).
Following this defeat it’s now guaranteed that Man Utd will record their lowest ever Premier League points tally in a season. They will avoid the embarrassment of relegation this time around, but if they continue to regress, they might not get so lucky next season.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Newcastle vs Man Utd stats from their Premier League meeting at St James’ Park.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Newcastle 4-1 Man Utd Stats: Post-Match
Newcastle secured their first league double over Manchester United since 1930-31, netting four goals in a league game against the Red Devils for the first time since September 2001 (4-3).
Manchester United’s 14 league defeats this season is their joint highest tally in a single Premier League campaign, also losing 14 games last season. The Red Devils last suffered more defeats in a top-flight campaign in 1989-90 (16 in 38 games).
Since Ruben Amorim’s first game in charge, only Southampton (59), Tottenham (53) and Leicester (53) have shipped more goals in all competitions than Manchester United (48) among Premier League clubs.
Only Southampton (19) and Aston Villa (13) have made more errors leading to goals in the Premier League this season than Manchester United (12), who made two today.
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