Bruno Guimaraes' 'impossible' promise & Newcastle United's new-look £146m attack as summer transfer confirmed

Newcastle United secured consecutive Premier League wins for the first time in 2024 in style as they beat Champions League chasing Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 at St James’ Park.

After an end-to-end start, Newcastle opened the scoring as Anthony Gordon slipped through Alexander Isak to score his 20th of the season. A minute later, Gordon pounced on a loose ball to make it 2-0 heading in at half-time.

Isak then cleverly beat the offside trap to receive Bruno Guimaraes’ long ball forward and make it 3-0 before a late Fabian Schar header from Gordon’s corner completed an excellent afternoon for Eddie Howe’s side.

Here are five talking points from the game...

A unique starting line-up for Newcastle United

Saturday saw Howe name a Newcastle starting line-up he had never named before and may never name again due to the side’s injury situation. The Magpies were boosted by Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall recovering from respective injuries to return to the bench as Howe made two changes to the side that started the 1-0 win over Fulham the week prior.

Elliot Anderson and Harvey Barnes came into the side in place of Hall and the injured Joe Willock. This prompted a unique defensive set-up as Dan Burn moved back out on the left with Emil Krafth in a more central role alongside Fabian Schar with Jacob Murphy providing cover down the right flank.

The versatile set-up saw Newcastle switch between a 3-4-3 and their traditional 4-3-3 set-up - and it worked a treat. Despite Newcastle seeing just 27% of the ball, they effectively dismantled Spurs on the break.

And that was no small part down to the pace and precision of their forward line.

Eddie Howe finally unleashes Newcastle United’s ‘exciting’ £146m attack

For the first time, Howe named a front three of Harvey Barnes on the left, Anthony Gordon on the right and Alexander Isak through the middle. It’s arguably Newcastle’s strongest front three but Howe has previously been prevented from unleashing it due to various injury and fitness issues this season.

Both Gordon and Isak are two of the Premier League’s in-form players at the moment and that fine run continued on Saturday afternoon. Isak’s 20th and 21st goals of the campaign make him the first Newcastle player to break the 20-goal barrier during a top-flight season since Alan Shearer in 2003-04.

While Gordon and Isak pose obvious threats with their pace and tenacity to attack, teams can’t afford to sleep on Barnes given the danger he poses cutting in from the left. It’s a front three we would have expected to see a lot more of this season, but its eventual unveiling to start a Premier League match certainly didn’t disappoint.

“[Gordon and Isak] have had to carry a big burden and when they’ve played together, adding Harvey into that, they looked really good,” Howe said afterwards. “It was a good physical performance, some high-level goals. Very exciting for the future.”

Newcastle United’s ‘outstanding’ player steps up

Howe felt Saturday saw the emergence of Elliot Anderson as a key member of Newcastle’s starting line-up. It was only the 21-year-old’s sixth start of the season as he put in his finest performance for the club to date.

Anderson has always been viewed as a technically gifted academy product, but on Saturday he stepped up and imposed his physical presence in the Premier League. Tenacious battling and carrying of the ball has provided the side with something it had been sorely missing since Joelinton’s injury back in January.

Newcastle’s defence meant Anderson had to be alert and support Dan Burn down the left side while also getting up the field and linking up with Barnes in attack. It was an all-action display that was unfortunate not to be capped off with a first competitive goal for the club as he came close in the second half.

“You look at someone like Elliot Anderson and what we asked him to do today and how well he delivered that,” Howe said. “We saw hopefully the emergence of Elliot Anderson to what we all thought for a long time, that he's an outstanding player and that he will be a very good player for us, not just short-term but long-term.”

Bruno Guimaraes does the ‘impossible’

When Bruno Guimaraes picked up his ninth booking of the season against Manchester City back in January, a two-match Premier League ban seemed inevitable. Yet the Brazilian somehow managed to control his discipline for three months and 11 matches to avoid picking up a 10th booking that would have seen him suspended.

Now the 32-game threshold has passed and Guimaraes is free to pick up bookings once again with only minimal consequences.

“A big relief, for him and for us,” Howe admitted.

“I was just saying earlier, we had a meeting a long time ago and he promised me he wouldn’t get booked, and I didn’t believe a word of it to be honest!

“Because we had so many games to go and his style of play is what it is, I didn’t think he could control that in the moments he needed to.”

Newcastle United £28m signing becomes official as European race hots up

Newcastle’s 4-0 win over Spurs takes them up to sixth in the table (prior to West Ham’s match against Fulham) on 50 points. It also means they can’t finish lower than 14th in the Premier League this season which triggers the performance-related obligation to buy clause in Lewis Hall’s loan from Chelsea.

Hall will officially become a permanent Newcastle player in the summer for £28million.

The result also takes Newcastle above Manchester United in the table and back into the Europa League places for the first time since December. With six games remaining and Man United still left to play, The Magpies’ destiny is in their own hands as they look to make a quick return to Europe next season.