Goal-den boy Joelinton is tons better for Howe
EDDIE HOWE hailed former flop Joelinton for the goals that powered Newcastle into the top half of the Premier League table. No one personifies the Toon transformation from relegation certs more than the Brazilian, who was a £40million dud under the previous regime.
Joelinton marked his 100th Premier League game with the first two goals.
Fellow samba man Bruno Guimaraes netted the third as Newcastle climbed to ninth and Norwich slipped closer to relegation.
Newcastle boss Howe said: “I’m really pleased for Joe on his 100th appearance.
“They were brilliant moments for him especially knowing the journey he has had at the club. It’s great to have players like that – I wish I had a few more.”
Newcastle were bottom when they drew 1-1 at home with Norwich in November, now only Liverpool have banked more points in 2022.
Howe added: “When you look back at some of the early days they are a long, long way from where we are now.”
Norwich had only themselves to blame for going in at the break two goals down. Dean Smith’s strugglers were fortunate ex-canary Jacob Murphy fired wide after Guimaraes had picked him out.
But Kieran Dowell then fluffed two clear chances to put Norwich in the driving seat.
First he fired over after Mathias Normann had teed him up.the second was more of the same after Pierre Lees-melou burst through the Toon defence.
His pass put Teemu Pukki in a shooting position but the
Finn decided to round keeper Martin Dubravka instead.that allowed defenders to flood back so Pukki fed Dowell, who scooped over once more.
Howe’s decision to move Joelinton from midfield to start as a central striker didn’t pay off. But once he switched him to the left he hit two goals in six minutes.
Burn flashed a header from a Toon corner just wide before Joelinton scored his first on 35 minutes – thoughvar was required to confirm Murphy was onside in the build-up.
The second came after Murphy burst through with team-mate Joe Willock the closest to him. Canaries skipper Grant Hanley raced back to slide in but the ball still found the unmarked Joelinton to fire home easily.
Worse was to come three minutes into the second half when Tim Krul, a
Newcastle keeper for more than a decade, played a dozy pass towards Normann that was easily intercepted by Guimaraes – who chipped his goal over the embarrassed Dutchman.
Norwich had plenty of time to get back in the match but knew it wouldn’t be happening. So did the home fans, who sat quietly until their boos at the final whistle.
Norwich are eight points from safety with only 15 now available. Boss Smith knows that they will be back in the Championship next term.
He said: “We have been punished too many times for our mistakes and we keep making too many – the table doesn’t lie.
‘‘Tim has to hold his hand up, too. He knows he has made a boo-boo today.”
ARSENAL drove a stake through Manchester United’s Champions League hopes to give a major boost to their own. Nuno Tavares and, from the penalty spot, Bukayo Saka put the Gunners 2-0 up before Cristiano Ronaldo pulled one back for United with his 100th Premier League goal for the club and had another effort ruled out for offside.
Bruno Fernandes then saw his penalty hit the post before Granit Xhaka sealed victory on a sweet week for Mikel Arteta’s side after the win against Chelsea.
“It was a phenomenal game for the spectators. For us, it was a roller coaster,’’ said Arteta, whose fourth place team are two points ahead of Tottenham after Antonio Conte’s side were held to a goalless draw at Brentford last night.
“We wanted to start the game really fast and dominate it, and we managed to do that.
“But when they scored it left us a bit cold and we got a bit insecure to how we should react.
“Then when they missed the penalty and we changed the shape, we scored and the game got back to where we wanted again.”
It was a dismal day for United’s interim boss Ralf Rangnick. He dropped Harry Maguire after a difficult week for the defender on and off the field, but his side were still rickety at the back.
It didn’t help that ex-united star Paul Scholes had claimed Jesse Lingard told him the dressing room was “an absolute mess, a disaster”.
Rangnick added: “I don’t know, you have to ask Jesse Lingard if you have this info.
“The whole group get on reasonable with each other. I’m not daring to say they get on well with each other (but) I don’t see that there is an issue in regard to the locker room.”