Newcastle climbed back into the top four after coming from behind to beat lowly Southampton 3-1 at St Mary’s.
Jan Bednarek’s header put Saints – who are now 11 points from Premier League safety – in front, but Alexander Isak’s double and a third from Sandro Tonali did the job for Eddie Howe’s men on the south coast.
Red-hot Isak has now scored 14 goals in his last 11 games in all competitions.
The Magpies had put the pressure on from the off, keen to avenge last week’s 4-1 defeat to Bournemouth, but it was Southampton who took the lead against the run of play inside 10 minutes when James Bree’s peach of a cross was powerfully headed home by the unmarked Bednarek.
Saints’ first goal at St Mary’s since December 4 gave the home crowd and lift, as well as former Toon player Adam Armstrong, who hit one shot at Martin Dubravka and another narrowly over. But he was soon left to rue those misses as Newcastle quickly turned the game on its head.
The visitors were first awarded a penalty after a VAR review, with Joe Aribo adjudged to have made “sufficient contact” with Isak as the pair jostled inside the box, despite referee Sam Barrott having originally awarded a corner. He went to the monitor to confirm the decision, and Isak made no mistake as he rolled his spot-kick into the bottom left corner.
Sandro Tonali celebrates after giving Newcastle a 3-1 lead at Southampton
Isak doubled the lead with a cool finish into the opposite corner of the net, courtesy of a beautiful assist from Jacob Murphy, and it could have been three shortly after when Joelinton crashed a shot off the post with Alex McCarthy beaten.
The visitors extended their lead five minutes after the restart – and the third was crafted in such a slick manner; Isak flicked the ball to Anthony Gordon with his shoulder, with Gordon then hitting a first-time ball into the path of Tonali, who arrived from nowhere, drove on and struck low past McCarthy.
Saints dug in and perhaps showed more grit than in previous weeks and months, but that means little without results to go with it – and they were denied the chance to mount a late comeback when Matheus Fernandes’ late strike was ruled out by VAR, who judged him to have strayed marginally offside in the build-up.
