{"id":26978,"date":"2025-04-17T07:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T07:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/26978\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T07:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T07:52:08","slug":"five-things-we-learned-from-newcastle-united-demolition-of-crystal-palace-as-alexander-isak-problem-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/26978\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things we learned from Newcastle United demolition of Crystal Palace as Alexander Isak problem emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Newcastle United\u2019s fantastic form continued on Wednesday night as they sailed to victory over Crystal Palace.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You wouldn\u2019t be able to tell that Newcastle United<\/a> are without their manager, Eddie Howe,<\/a> with the way they are playing, as they fired into a 4-0 lead before half-time.<\/p>\n

Jacob Murphy<\/a> lashed in the opener before Marc Guehi turned into his own net against Newcastle<\/a> for the second time this season.<\/p>\n

The second came just seconds after Nick Pope<\/a> had saved a penalty from Eberechi Eze, a knife-edge moment that the Toon came out on the better side of.<\/p>\n

The in-form Harvey Barnes<\/a> added a confident third before Fabian Schar<\/a> nodded in just before the whistle. Alexander Isak finally added a fifth after the break for a 5-0 win.<\/p>\n

Here are five things we learned from the dominant victory.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by ANDY BUCHANAN\/AFP via Getty ImagesAlexander Isak is a little rusty, showing the need for a backup<\/p>\n

10 minutes weren\u2019t even on the clock by the time Murphy put three sublime balls into the path of Alexander Isak.<\/a> Yet, none of them were scored. <\/p>\n

It got to the point where the winger just had to shoot himself to find the back of the net from an impossible angle and he finally got his assist thanks to Schar.<\/p>\n

Isak eventually managed to get on the score sheet after the break with an excellent finish, but he missed a ridiculous number of chances beforehand and is clearly below his best in the wake of the Carabao Cup final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a cause for concern by any means, more a weakness in the squad<\/a> for those moments when things aren\u2019t going right for the Super Swede.<\/p>\n

He is looking a little leggy as the gruelling season reaches its conclusion and the lack of a quality alternative to take his place is an obvious concern. <\/p>\n

A better striker than Callum Wilson<\/a> and Will Osula will have to be signed in the summer.<\/p>\n

Anthony Gordon isn\u2019t getting in the starting XI anytime soon<\/p>\n

Jason Tindall<\/a> spoke about the momentum of the side before kick-off when asked about not making any changes to his starting XI, so, by that logic, it\u2019s bad news for Anthony Gordon.<\/a><\/p>\n

The winger\u2019s suspension and subsequent injury have opened the door for Harvey Barnes to finally get a run in the team<\/a> without the fear that he will drop straight back out again if he doesn\u2019t perform.<\/p>\n

With the pressure off, Barnes is now putting in the type of performances he was signed for.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s now four goals and two assists in five games for him and Gordon isn\u2019t getting his spot back any time soon.<\/p>\n

Nick Pope makes amends for massive blunder, is it enough?<\/p>\n

Nick Pope<\/a> wasn\u2019t troubled too often but every time a ball was swung into the box, he commanded the air and caught it with ease. <\/p>\n

That was until he needless rushed off his line, missed it completely and gave away a penalty after clattering into Chris Richards.<\/p>\n

He did make amends by reading Eze\u2019s penalty and keeping it out, ensuring Newcastle went on to win comfortably, but it was still a blunder that could have been costly.<\/p>\n

With rumours continuing to grow that Newcastle could look to sign a goalkeeper in the summer \u2013 most notably James Trafford<\/a> \u2013 those sorts of errors could come back to bite him.<\/p>\n

Joelinton looks annoyed to be taken off<\/p>\n

After Isak made it five, Tindall sprang into action and made his first round of substitutes, with the hard-working Joelinton<\/a> making way for the returning Joe Willock.<\/a><\/p>\n

Even with less than half an hour left on the clock and the game done and dusted, the Brazilian still looked annoyed to be leaving the field as he shook his head at the decision.<\/p>\n

That just epitomised the hunger and desire Joelinton has, the same determination that saw him set up the fifth goal with a tackle high up the field. Let\u2019s hope he never loses it.<\/p>\n

Champions League is in touching distance<\/p>\n

Newcastle were already in a strong position to qualify for the Champions League,<\/a> especially since the top five will make it to Europe\u2019s top competition.<\/p>\n

But now it\u2019s verging on impossible for them not to make it. The match was their game-in-hand from the Carabao Cup final and the victory has seen them climb to third in the Premier League table<\/a> above Nottingham Forest. <\/p>\n

They are five points above a stuttering Chelsea in sixth place, with just six games remaining,<\/a> though one of them is against the London side on May 10th.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newcastle United\u2019s fantastic form continued on Wednesday night as they sailed to victory over Crystal Palace. You wouldn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[9261,16404,1614,94,16405,16406,16407,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-26978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-alexander-isak","9":"tag-anthony-gordon","10":"tag-champions-league","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-harvey-barnes","13":"tag-joelinton","14":"tag-nick-pope","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114352222753885151","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}