Joe Willock and Callum Wilson combined to head Newcastle firmly into the race for Champions League qualification as they leapfrogged Manchester United into third place.
Willock's 65th-minute header, his third goal of the season, and a second from substitute Wilson two minutes from time inflicted just a second defeat in 17 games in all competitions on Erik ten Hag's side and gained a measure of revenge for February's Carabao Cup final heartache at Wembley.
It was a deserved 2-0 victory too for the Magpies, who created the better chances in the game and might have gone ahead through Alexander Isak, Sean Longstaff and Willock before they broke the deadlock in front of a crowd of 52,268.
They are now level on 50 points - one more than they collected during the whole of the last campaign - with United, but have a significantly better goal difference with both having 11 games to play.
