Newcastle United looked short of confidence as they were well beaten by Bournemouth.
St James’ Park looked as if it had the life sapped out of it as the Magpies lost for the first time in 10 games in all competitions on Saturday.
It was the first time they had conceded more than once in any competition since they lost away at Brentford in early December. This time, they were embarrassed on home soil thanks to a hat-trick from Justin Kluivert; son of former Newcastle man Patrick and a stoppage-time goal from Milos Kerkez.
It looked at one point that Newcastle could have found a way to secure all three points. After Bruno Guimaraes scored an equaliser the Magpies had a good spell on the ball but failed to take anything from it. Things soon went back to how they were at the start of the game.
At one point, Anthony Gordon had to frustratingly shout at Newcastle’s defenders because they were giving the ball away so much.
The defeat was a missed opportunity to move up to third in the Premier League table. Now, Nottingham Forest could extend their gap to Newcastle to six points.
Newcastle’s embarrassing performance against Bournemouth also meant that Toon boss Eddie Howe is still yet to pick up a Premier League win against his former club. Saturday’s defeat made it six without victory.
Howe has now gone on record to put down what he felt was the reason for his side’s defeat on Saturday.
Eddie Howe blames fatigue for Newcastle defeat
Howe missed the opportunity to become the first manager in Newcastle’s history to win 10 games in a row. At the moment, that won’t matter to him at all.
Howe spoke to TNT Sport after the game where he was asked to assess his team’s performance.
“I don’t think we were great today,” he said.
“I think we were beaten by the better team. Disappointed from the start really. I thought physically we didn’t look anywhere near our best levels today.
“The game in midweek, and the run of games we had previously caught up to us today. We didn’t look like we had that pounce in our step that we normally have and we didn’t perform.
Howe had previously stated it was not ideal that Newcastle had the early kick-off after playing a midweek game. The Magpies have played five games in the last two weeks, fatigue was bound to creep up on them eventually.
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Newcastle players weren’t at the right level against Bournemouth
Most of the Newcastle players failed to make an impact on Saturday’s defeat. Aside from Guimaraes, Newcastle failed to offer much in front of goal.
One of the few clearcut chances came right before Bournemouth’s fourth in added time when Gordon had an effort cleared off the line.
Joe Cole claimed Newcastle left-back Lewis Hall looked “off” before he was substituted in the 66th minute. Joelinton picked up yet another booking which now means he is only two games away from receiving a two-match ban.
The only player who looked remotely lively was Sandro Tonali who was a threat throughout.
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