Newcastle now one win away from Champions League return after 20-year exile

Newcastle 4 Brighton 1

For Newcastle the equation is simple; win one of their remaining two games and Tyneside’s 20-year exile from the Champions League will be over.

The celebrations could well begin on Monday night when Leicester travel here but, should Aston Villa win at Liverpool, they might be triggered as early as Saturday. On this evidence though, a few of Eddie Howe’s players could be almost too tired to party.

The indefatigable Lewis Dunk and Jason Steele excepted, much the same could be said of Roberto De Zerbi’s evidently fatigued players as they aim to take their club into Europe for the first time.

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Whereas Newcastle pushed themselves through the pain barrier, Brighton were way below their best and never looked like sustaining a brief second-half revival.

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Following a defeat against Arsenal here and a draw at Leeds, Howe said he wanted his players to harness the “power of the crowd” and remind everyone they remain “a force”.

Evidently heeding their manager’s words, Newcastle began with the sort of zeal which soon had De Zerbi’s side penned into their own half, gasping for breath.

At this point, Brighton looked a barely detectable shadow of the team which had won 3-0 at Arsenal last Sunday.

As Joe Willock, Joelinton, Alexander Isak, Miguel Almirón and company forced De Zerbi’s starting XI into a series of errors, rarely permitting them to hold on to the ball for more than a matter of seconds, it seemed a repeat of the visitors’ 5-1 home surrender to Everton earlier this month was not exactly a remote possibility.

Only Dunk, fighting a valiant rearguard effort at centre half, and Steele, once again demonstrating why he has displaced Spain’s Robert Sánchez in goal, were really that heavily involved in mounting a resistance effort.

Shortly after Dunk had performed heroics to block Joelinton’s shot, Brighton finally fell behind. The goal came from a corner, expertly whipped in by Kieran Trippier and headed into his own goal by the helpless Deniz Undav.

Sánchez, left at home on the south coast after exhibiting a marked reluctance to sit on the bench, may have felt he had made the right decision.

De Zerbi said that leaving his fallen star behind “represented the best solution”. Yet had Sánchez made it to Tyneside he might have read an interview in the match programme with Newcastle’s Paul Dummett and just possibly felt a little ashamed of his behaviour.

After proving a cornerstone of Rafael Benítez’s defence here, Dummett is now a near permanent fixture on Howe’s bench. He admitted he misses playing and believes he is still capable of performing well but has no time for players in the same position who “make a fuss” or put self before side. Given the level of Brighton’s performance, De Zerbi had begun creating quite a technical area commotion but, for a while, the Italian’s evident disgust was perhaps leavened by the continued slenderness of the scoreline.

Yet if Brighton were reprieved when referee Robert Jones and his VAR officials decided that Dunk’s foul on Callum Wilson should not preface a penalty, Newcastle’s advantage was rather less skinny by the interval.

Not for the first time, Tripper had excelled and, on the brink of half-time, his latest free kick was headed beyond Steele by Dan Burn.

It dictated that Howe’s principal interval concerns centred on the yellow cards collected by his key central midfielder Bruno Guimarães, for a foul on Kaoru Mitoma, and Fabian Schär, for shoving Billy Gilmour in the face as Trippier prepared to take that goal preceding dead ball.

Burn re-emerged for the second period seeming somehow larger than his customary 6ft 7in. Not content with registering his first Premier League goal for Newcastle it had arrived against his former employer.

Who would have thought there was a time on the south coast when the centre half turned left back could barely get a game for Brighton?

Unfortunately for Howe, Burn was soon brought back down to earth when De Zerbi’s side stunned St James’ Park by remembering that they can play a bit after all.

No sooner had Burn crossed, Willock flicked on and Almirón forced Steele into a stellar save than Gilmour’s superior through pass precipitated the advancing Undav expertly steering his shot beneath the diving Nick Pope.

With that goal having rightly survived a VAR review for a potential offside, De Zerbi opted to further spice things up courtesy of a triple substitution involving the introduction of Argentina’s World Cup-winning Alexis Mac Allister, Republic of Ireland striker Evan Ferguson and Julio Enciso.

The latter’s arrival meant that there were two Paraguay internationals on the pitch; Enciso and Almirón.

Willock has realistic ambitions to soon become a senior England international but they were almost certainly placed on hold when he collapsed with what appeared a serious hamstring injury. Worryingly for Howe, Willock appeared in considerable pain as he was helped off the pitch and replaced by Elliot Anderson.

With Sean Longstaff, another key midfielder, currently sidelined by an ankle problem, Newcastle looked somewhat understaffed in that department at a vital moment of the campaign.

At least Isak, Wilson and co looked in good health as Dunk and friends stretched every sinew to restrict them to just two more goals.

First Wilson scored his 18th of the season, meeting Almirón’s pass and advancing 40 yards before sidefooting home.

Then Wilson held the ball up adroitly for Guimarães to apply an ecstatically received 12 yard finish. – Guardian