Newcastle kept moving up the Premier League standings after their sixth victory in seven games propelled them temporarily over Tottenham into third place after beating Southampton at St. Mary’s.
With their most recent victory, the Magpies rose into the top three, dropping Saints to the bottom three.
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Miguel Almiron is in the greatest shape of his career, and it was his eighth goal in 13 games, which has now tied his highest season total, that got Newcastle off to a good start against the South Coast.
Gareth Southgate, the manager of the watching England team, then had to deal with two injury scares: first, Kieran Trippier needed medical attention for a muscular problem, and then Callum Wilson had to be replaced at halftime.
Mohammed Elyounoussi and Che Adams both had two opportunities to tie the game for Southampton but squandered both.
Almiron turned his man and rolled his effort past Gavin Bazunu after a fluid Newcastle play that the referee could have stopped several than once for foul-worthy Southampton tackles.
At the half, Southampton was booed off.
At halftime, Wilson withdrew after feeling dizzy and was replaced by Chris Wood.
Soon after the game resumed, Jacob Murphy found Wood in the box, and the big Kiwi converted to make it 2-0 for Newcastle.
Newcastle was able to play on the break and successfully take advantage of the space Saints left as they advanced in quest of a lifeline. Joe Willock collected a pass from Kieran Trippier in just four minutes to make it 3-0.
In the 89th minute, Romain Perraud gave the home team a one-goal advantage, but Newcastle regained it in the last seconds.
To make it 4-1, Bruno Guimaraes fired one of his signature long-range strikes.
With the win, Newcastle improved to third place in the league, went nine games without a loss, and dropped their opponent to 18th.
A year had passed since Eddie Howe took over as manager, so he couldn’t have had many complaints at halftime.
Kieran Trippier’s probable injury was the only cloud in Newcastle’s otherwise clear sky, but the England full-back later revealed that he was only experiencing hamstring discomfort.
