Jacob Murphy scored one goal and set up another as rampant Newcastle United thumped Crystal Palace 5-0 at St James’ Park on Wednesday to go third in the Premier League table with a sixth consecutive win in all competitions.
Newcastle have 59 points from 32 games and are five points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification next season with the top five teams earning a place. Palace have 43 points and are 12th.
Harvey Barnes, Fabian Schar and Alexander Isak also scored for Newcastle, as the visitors’ night was compounded by an own goal from defender Marc Guehi and a missed penalty by Eberechi Eze when they trailed 1-0.
Newcastle were again without manager Eddie Howe in the dugout as he continues to recover from pneumonia, but the performance would have been just the tonic as they scored some excellent goals and were ruthless in punishing Palace errors.
