On Monday, Anthony Gordon received a wild lunge on Virgil van Dijk, and Ryan Gravenberch and long-awaited Newcastle target Hugo Ekitike both struck for the English champions.
The Magpies fought back through Bruno Guimaraes and William Osula in the midst of a frantic St James’ Park scene, only to be denied by teenage sensation Ngumoha’s late strike.
With Tottenham and title rivals Arsenal, who travel to Anfield on Sunday, Liverpool are now at the top of their two games.
Newcastle still without a victory because they are without Alexander Isak, their want-again striker. If Isak does leave before the transfer window closes in a week, then Liverpool are likely to be the destination.
The fact that Newcastle had a potential Isak replacement in mind when they won the Premier League championship championship, adds to the frustration of the Magpies.
In an ultra-offensive lineup that saw Dominik Szoboszlai take over as a makeshift right-back, Liverpool manager Arne Slot named new signings Ekitike and Florian Wirtz, along with Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah.
Newcastle’s lack of a clinical number nine was exposed after failing to beat 10-man Aston Villa 0-0 at the start of the season last weekend, which exposed their lack of the striker target in the transfer market.
Despite a dominating opening 30 minutes, it cost them once more against Liverpool.
Newcastle penned Liverpool inside their own half without scoring the winning goal in front of a ferocious crowd of more than 50, 000.
Instead, it was the visitors, 35 minutes into the game, that completely overran the game.
Gravenberch fired an inch-perfect shot off the inside of the post from a distance that was far away.
Before the break, Gordon’s frustration escalated to the point where he was dismissed after a VAR review revealed his studs had raked down the Dutch defender’s Achilles.
By the time his team’s 20 second lead was doubled, Slot had not even taken his seat.
With a composed side-footed finish from Cody Gakpo’s pass, Ekitike scored twice in as many Premier League games.
Ibrahima Konate escaped a second yellow card for pushing on Harvey Barnes, which only made the situation worse for Newcastle.
However, a fired-up Guimaraes outmuscled Milos Kerkez to head in at the back post moments after being arrested for allegedly escrocating him.
Liverpool had to make their man advantage count for the entire second half due to pressure.
Howe has been wary of fielding Osula, but the youngster scored just his second Premier League goal when he bundled the ball past Alisson from a Dan Burn flick-on.
Newcastle fought forward in search of a memorable winner, only to be defeated by Liverpool’s attacking prowess.
Szoboszlai brilliantly dummied Salah’s pass to make it clear that Ngumoha was unmarked and could not be saved until just before his 17th birthday.
Van Dijk, the captain of Liverpool, thanked Ngumoha and his other teammates for the successful victory.
“I’m really, really happy for Rio. He must continue to work hard, maintain humility, and I’m confident he will do so, he said after the game.
“Newcastle has the quality, and it was always difficult to find there,” he said. Although we could have made this atmosphere more bearable, I like it. However, we now have three points and leave. Today, there have been many positive things.
Guimaraes, the skipper of Newcastle, claimed Gordon’s red card was the result of his overeagerness.
He probably wished he had given too much of his assistance. You sometimes make mistakes because you are so excited to play, Guimaraes said to Sky Sports.
“It has occurred to me. We make an effort to give it our best. We are unable to control the volume of outside noise.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply