Eddie Howe was missing, watching on television from a hospital bed and too ill to activate a telephone line to the home dugout, yet his absence proved irrelevant.
Newcastle’s players were so determined to send their manager a meaningful get-well message that they ultimately put on the sort of show that not merely proved Howe’s hard work on Tyneside is yielding rich rewards but blew Manchester United away.
On an afternoon when Thomas Tuchel, England’s head coach, occupied a seat in the directors’ box, Tino Livramento and Harvey Barnes pressed their international claims. Livramento had an excellent game out of position at left-back as goals from the similarly outstanding Sandro Tonali, Barnes (twice) and Bruno Guimarães lifted Newcastle to fourth in the table.
The triumphalist strains of Status Quo’s Rocking All Over the World that boomed out of the sound system at the final whistle were not misplaced; a Champions League place appears well within their grasp.
If Howe’s deputy, Jason Tindall, had reason to punch the air in delight at the final whistle, his Manchester United counterpart, Ruben Amorim, seemed a walking, talking study in bewildered despair.
The Portuguese’s side – in mitigation fairly heavily rotated here as the Europa League is prioritised – have slipped to 14th and another awkward inquest centred on defending and goalkeeping doubtless awaited them on their return to Manchester.
Only two minutes into a long‑awaited Premier League debut, Altay Bayindir found himself picking the ball out of his net.
Fortunately for the Turkey goalkeeper, selected ahead of the dropped – or rested – André Onana, Joelinton was clearly offside as he turned Kieran Trippier’s cross home and that effort was disallowed.
When Joshua Zirkzee subsequently turned slapdash and forfeited possession, Jacob Murphy’s shot flew fractionally wide, perhaps prompting Amorim’s players to briefly get their act together.
As the visitors showed they were capable of establishing, if not quite maintaining, a slick, sharp passing rhythm, their 18-year-old debutant left wing‑back, Harry Amass, initially looked encouragingly unfazed in the face of Trippier’s streetwise attentions.
It may have been a false dawn but, for a while, Newcastle’s sting was drawn and a deft one-two involving Zirkzee and Bruno Fernandes concluded with Nick Pope tipping the former’s shot over the crossbar.
Not that Amorim looked exactly satisfied as he incessantly paced the perimeters of his technical area in the manner of a hyperactive child fuelled by a sugar rush with his body language turning even more manic as Tonali volleyed Newcastle in front.
It began with Manuel Ugarte conceding possession and allowing Trippier to pick out Alexander Isak. All that remained was for the Swede to swivel free of his marker before dinking a pass for Tonali to volley past Bayindir. The only consolation for the former Fenerbahce goalkeeper was that there was absolutely nothing he could have done to prevent it.
The anxiety etched on Amorim’s face every time Tonali received the ball reflected the latter’s impact. Anyone devising an identikit of the complete midfielder could do worse than model it on the string-pulling, tempo-setting Italy playmaker.
Tonali very nearly scored a second, curling a 25-yard shot narrowly wide as Amorim shook his header with the puzzlement of a man who very possibly wonders why on earth he left Lisbon.
Not that a team who flattered to deceive whenever Fernandes contributed a clever touch were quite out of it. Alejandro Garnacho duly shot low, left-footed, into the bottom corner at the end of a fine counterattack conjured by the suddenly quick-thinking Ugarte and Diogo Dalot. The rapidity of Garnacho’s acceleration seemed capable of wrong-footing Newcastle and, with half-time approaching, Pope came to the rescue again and denied him a second goal.
If only Amorim’s defence did not look quite so prone to melting in the face of the slightest bit of attacking heat, his touchline prowling might not be quite so frantic.
How Manchester United could do with a bit of Newcastle’s efficiency at both ends, something emphasised as Tindall tightened the home pressing mechanism and Barnes restored his side’s lead with a simple tap-in after Livramento’s devastating counterattacking advance. With Dalot left trailing in Livramento’s rear view mirror, the full-back crossed for Murphy to cut the ball back into Barnes’s path. Tuchel will surely have been impressed.
Amorim’s dismay deepened as first Zirkzee hobbled off with a hamstring injury and then Barnes scored again. His first goal may have been routine but this was anything but.
It began with the winger dispossessing Noussair Mazraoui and involved him sprinting past two more defenders before lashing an unstoppable shot beyond Bayindir’s reach. Tuchel could do worse than summon Barnes to his next squad, along with Livramento and Dan Burn.
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Poor Bayindir was at fault for the fourth as, attempting to play out from the back, he passed straight to Joelinton, whose ensuing header cued up Guimarães to do the rest.
It will certainly be intriguing to see whom Amorim selects in goal for United’s all important Europa League engagement with Lyon on Thursday night.
