EDDIE HOWE will not be rushing back to work and even if he wanted to, there would be little point.
Because his Newcastle team are in absolutely blistering form, rising to third place on auto-pilot towards a Champions League spot.
Liverpool will be thankful that Howe’s team did not play like this in the first half of the season otherwise we would have had a title race on our hands.
With Howe still recovering from pneumonia, his assistant Jason Tindall was able to watch with admiration from the technical area as this team expertly dismantled Palace in a brutal opening 45 minutes.
Jacob Murphy continued his magnificent season with the first and after Palace’s Eberechi Eze missed a penalty, team-mate Marc Guehi scored an own goal.
Harvey Barnes and Fabian Schar both struck in first half injury time before Alexander Isak grabbed the fifth to ensure a sixth successive Newcastle win in the Premier League.
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The fact Toon have maintained their focus after winning a first domestic trophy for 70 years – rather than let the victory go to their heads – is testament to Howe and the culture he has created here.
And crushing Palace is no mean feat considering they were unbeaten in 10 games away from Selhurst Park until Saturday’s 5-2 loss at Manchester City.
In a season which Newcastle fans will remember for the rest of their lives, the team’s four star players have been top scorer Isak, Wembley hero Dan Burn, Sandro Tonali and Jacob Murphy.
While the club have spent £400m since the Saudi Arabian takeover in 2021, Murphy arrived for just £12m from Norwich eight years ago.
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Murphy, 30, has blossomed under Howe and he has been Newcastle’s assists king this season and even created three chances in the opening 10 minutes.
And when Palace were expecting another cross, Murphy probably surprised even himself by firing a shot into the near-post top corner.
Despite being so comfortable in defence, keeper Nick Pope handed Palace a way back when he rushed towards the edge of the area and collided with Chris Richards.
None of the Palace players appealed for a penalty but as soon as ref Darren England was called over to the VAR monitor, he was always going to award a penalty.
Yet Eze’s penalty was terrible. With his run-up, he stuttered and then virtually stopped, before sending a weak shot which Pope saved easily.
And Eze was still cursing his shocking miss when Newcastle made it 2-0 just 98 seconds later.
Barnes, once again preferred to Anthony Gordon due to his excellent form, saw his attempted cross to Isak take a heavy deflection off Guehi and the ball looped past Dean Henderson.
Palace boss Oliver Glasner would have been happy to get back to the dressing room at half-time with just two conceded but it got a whole lot worse.
His team were exposed brutally on a counter attack again and Barnes raced onto an exquisite pass from Tonali before charging into the area and nudging his way past Max Lacroix before hammering a shot into the corner
Seven minutes of stoppage time was being played due to the VAR check for the penalty and Murphy delivered his 11th assist of the season with Schar scoring a glancing header
Top scorer Isak failed to score in Sunday’s 4-1 thumping of Manchester United and it looked as though he might miss out again until Joelinton nicked the ball off Lacroix and he thumped a first-time shot past Henderson.
For Palace, they will be keen to forget this mauling.
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Newcastle even added something of a taunt at the end – by playing their opponents’ “Glad All Over” anthem.
But Glasner’s side still have an FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa on Saturday week and this team still has the quality to end the season on a magnificent high.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
