Newcastle United produced another ruthless display in a 4-1 win over struggling Southampton at St Mary's on Sunday, with Miguel Almiron bagging his seventh goal in as many games.
Quickfire second-half goals from Chris Wood and Joe Willock all but sealed a fourth straight win for Newcastle, with Bruno Guimaraes adding a late flourish after Romain Perraud's consolation goal for the hosts.
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The result lifted Newcastle provisionally into third place on 27 points from 14 games, before Tottenham Hotspur's game against Liverpool later on Sunday, while Southampton remain 18th on 12 points.
"I'm very pleased with the result, the performance wasn't our best but I'm not going to pick it to pieces," Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said. "We were not at our best but we scored four wonderful goals.
"It was a tough game for us, Southampton dropped into bottom three yesterday so we knew they would show a reaction. It feels a little flat because we didn't hit the heights which we have in other weeks, but we were clinical when we needed to be."
After a frantic and fast-paced opening half-hour, a quick Newcastle break put Almiron through on goal. The Paraguay international dribbled past Ainsley Maitland-Niles before calmly rolling the ball past goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu with 35 minutes on the clock.
Newcastle made a quiet start to the second half but doubled their lead with their first attack after the break when Jacob Murphy found Wood in the box and the substitute fired a brilliant shot into the bottom corner after 58 minutes.
Kieran Trippier slipped a delightful through ball for Willock to latch on to and poke past Bazunu four minutes later before Perraud pulled back a goal in the 89th minute in stunning fashion, cutting inside the sliding Dan Burn and curling his shot into the net.
The visitors were relentless, however, and restored their three-goal advantage in the first minute of stoppage time when Allan Saint-Maximin set up Bruno outside the box and the midfielder curled a brilliant effort past the diving Bazunu.
