Howe says free-scoring Newcastle back to their best after Ipswich rout

Eddie Howe believes Newcastle United are finally back to their best in attack, following Saturday’s Alexander Isak-inspired thrashing of Ipswich Town.

Having beaten Leicester City 4-0 last week, Newcastle triumphed by the same scoreline again at Portman Road, with Jacob Murphy joining the outstanding Isak among the goals.

Newcastle had only won two of their previous 11 Premier League games before their back-to-back victories, while this is the third time they have ever won successive games in the competition by four or more goals, previously doing so in August 1994 and September 1998.

Speaking to BBC Match of the Day after the win, which lifted Newcastle to seventh in the table, Howe was full of praise for his attackers.

“Absolutely delighted with the players and what they’ve given this week, it’s been a really big week for us,” Howe said.

“Getting through to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup was one of our big aims and our league form needed to improve, so it’s brilliant to get back-to-back wins.

“We’re just constantly trying to tweak things and trying to improve, there are a number of little things to upturn our form.

“Our creative play has been back to what it has always been, free-scoring and looking like we can create at any time.”

Having drawn 3-3 with Liverpool and lost 4-2 at Brentford earlier this month, Newcastle have scored as many goals in their last four league games (13) as in their previous 12.

Isak led the line brilliantly at Portman Road, netting just the second Premier League hat-trick by a Swedish player, after Arsenal’s Freddie Ljungberg versus Sunderland in May 2003.

His first goal, scored after 25.95 seconds, was the fourth-fastest for Newcastle in a Premier League match, after Alan Shearer versus Manchester City in January 2003 (10.52 seconds), Miguel Almiron against West Brom in December 2020 (19.98), and Dwight Gayle versus Liverpool in July 2020 (25.85).

“There’s no doubting his quality,” Howe said of Isak, who now has 10 Premier League goals for the campaign and six in his last four games.

“We just needed to get the framework of the team right to give him the opportunity to score. He has really responded well.

“The goals today just show his class and coolness in front of goal. With his speed and his technical ability, he has a bit of everything.

“The plan is that Sandro [Tonali] plays a little bit deeper than Joe Willock and Bruno [Guimaraes], but they’re still given freedom to express themselves and to move.

“It’s getting that balance right between the freedom and the structure, and I think they got the balance perfect.”

Newcastle now face fellow European hopefuls Aston Villa and Manchester United before the start of the January transfer window, in which Howe expects the Magpies to be quiet.

He said: “The message is that we probably, at this moment in time, need to concentrate on the players that we do have and get the best out of them rather than looking externally.”