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Ipswich 0-4 Newcastle

Premier League, Sat, Dec 21, 2024

Shots

10 - 15

Shots on Target

2 - 7

Possession

42% - 58%

Pass Completion

83% - 87%

Corners

2 - 1

Fouls

9 - 7

Yellow Cards

2 - 0

Red Cards

0 - 0

&c

It was raining goals at a sodden Portman Road on Saturday as Newcastle sent their fans home full of festive cheer after three huge wins in eight days.

A complete performance against a Tractor Boys team that go into Christmas without a home league win got off to a rapid start as Alex Isak swept home after 25 seconds, following a trademark 70 yard Fabian Schar pass to Jacob Murphy, who after a full three minute VAR check was confirmed as onside in the build up.

There was no let up from there, Newcastle dominating entirely with the Brunali midfield axis today complemented by Joe Willock, in for the suspended Joelinton.

Once again, everything went through Jacob Murphy, who seems to have gone from "just happy to be involved" grafter to having a real fire in his belly and wanting to prove that he belongs in this team, giving a bit back to fans who had bemoaned his finishing against Brentford when scoring on Wednesday, and today pointing to the name on his shirt after leathering a shot in off the bar to make it 2-0.

Gan on son.

Isak made it 3-0 in first half stoppage time, Bruno taking advantage of the utter nonsense fad of awful teams "playing out from the back" to nick the ball in the box and poke it to the in-form Swede who looked almost embarrassed in finishing.

And Isak scored his first Newcastle hat-trick - and the first of any Newcastle player in the league since Ayoze Perez in 2019 - when sweeping home an outrageous, audacious little chipped backheel across the box from that man Murphy.

As with the wins against Leicester and Brentford, victory here was achieved with plenty to spare and the margin of victory should have been bigger, Burn having a late goal correctly disallowed for offside, Bruno hitting the post with a header from a fair way out, Gordon heading into the ground and wide when well placed and Isak once again shooting weakly when one-on-one with the keeper.

There's a nagging feeling that missing chances like these could be costly at some point, but after 11 goals in just over a week and at least 5 great chances missed over the course of the three games, it feels like we're back to what we do best - aggressive pressing, direct wing play and, for the first time this season, creating chances for an elite striker.

For me at least there was some parallel with the 4-0 win here in the 2009-10 Championship season, a result that made me think "maybe this season could actually go well".

Too early to draw any actual conclusions in such an inconsistent season, but hope that there may be something to play for after all.

Merry Christmas Toon fans!.