Norwich City 0-3 Newcastle United: Player ratings as Joelinton brace sends Magpies into top half

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Newcastle United earned a convincing 3-0 victory away to Norwich City on Saturday afternoon, inspired by a first half brace from Joelinton for their first Premier League victory at Carrow Road since 1994.

Bathed in the Norfolk sunshine, Norwich started brightly. Keen to test the speed in Newcastle’s solid, if not swift, backline, the Canaries repeatedly played passes over the top. The first of two clear openings Kieran Dowell squandered came from one such move, but he spooned both of his first-half sights of goal over the bar.

Joelinton stepped forward as the unlikely individual to demonstrate the clinical edge Norwich were missing. Moved out of the midfield role he has flourished in since Eddie Howe’s arrival, the burly Brazilian exchanged positions with Allan Saint-Maximin in the front line.

Following a sprayed diagonal of their own, a combination of Jacob Murphy and Saint-Maximin forced the ball across the box for Joelinton to crash a 35th-minute opener into the top corner. Only six minutes had elapsed before Newcastle’s number seven was celebrating his second, tapping in Murphy’s square pass as a yawning chasm in Norwich’s defence spontaneously emerged.

Norwich’s penchant for self-destruction once again reared its ugly head shortly after the restart.

Tim Krul, the former Newcastle custodian, was closer to picking out a player for his past employers than a teammate with a shockingly casual pass. Bruno Guimaraes pounced, ruthlessly compounding Krul’s error by scooping his side’s third goal over the red-faced keeper.

The hosts could hardly be accused of downing tools, intermittently buzzing behind Newcastle’s backline. Yet, Howe’s side kept the Canaries at arm’s length for a comfortable conclusion played to the soundtrack of „ole“ at times.

Newcastle’s tenth victory from their last 14 league matches elevated the Magpies to the lofty heights of ninth place. Whereas Norwich’s survival bid took another blow as they remain rooted to the foot of the table, a position Newcastle occupied when the clubs last met in October.

Kieran DowellKieran Dowell

Kieran Dowell missed a pair of early chances while the game was level / Marc Atkins/GettyImages

GK: Tim Krul – 3/10 – Delivered a gaff that will pepper blooper reels for the foreseeable future.

RB: Sam Byram – 4/10 – Befuddled by the exchange of positions between Saint-Maximin and Joelinton.

CB: Grant Hanley – 5/10 – Left embarrassingly isolated by his AWOL defence colleagues – not for the first time this season.

CB: Christoph Zimmermann – 3/10 – Showed flashes of penetration with the ball at his feet but failed to offer much in the way of quelling the danger posed by Newcastle.

LB: Dimitris Giannoulis – 3/10 – Time and again got lost under the flight of the ball as Newcastle funnelled their attacks down his flank.

CM: Mathias Normann – 5/10 – Capable of picking out a dart from deep but only had sporadic openings to do so.

CM: Kenny McLean – 4/10 – Sold horribly short by Krul, McLean can hardly take any blame for the calamitous concession of Norwich’s third.

AM: Pierre Lees-Melou – 5/10 – Demonstrated a deceptively quick turn of pace which his long stride masks but faded from the contest.

RW: Kieran Dowell – 4/10 – The only consolation for Dowell’s gilt-edged squanderings was that he got into the dangerous positions in the first place.

ST: Teemu Pukki – 5/10 – Described as „an important cog in the machine“ by his manager pre-game, Pukki cranked through the gears to stretch Newcastle when given the chance to speed in behind.

LW: Milot Rashica – 3/10 – Painfully weak when detecting any sniff of a tackle in an anonymous display.

SUB: Max Aarons (58′ for Zimmermann) – 6/10 – Offered an option on the overlap but it was all too little too late by the time Aarons trotted into a 3-0 deficit.

SUB: Jonathan Rowe (58′ for Normann) – 5/10

SUB: Christos Tzolis (75′ for Rashica) – N/A

GK: Martin Dubravka – 6/10 – Dealt with what little flew his way comfortably enough.

RB: Emil Krafth – 7/10 – Creeping forward to dovetail well with Murphy in the buildup to Newcastle’s opener.

CB: Jamaal Lascelles – 6/10 – The returning skipper was a little rusty to begin with but grew into the game.

CB: Dan Burn – 6/10 – Not entirely convincing when faced with a yellow shirt sprinting towards him in transition, Burn didn’t have too many tricky moments.

LB: Matt Targett – 7/10 – With one of Joelinton and Saint-Maximin occupying the space ahead of him, Targett limited himself to holding a solid defensive position.

CM: Sean Longstaff – 6/10 – The keenest Magpie to leap off his midfield branch and close down the Canary on the ball.

CM: Bruno Guimaraes – 8/10 – Hovering as the deepest midfielder in the absence of Jonjo Shelvey, Guimaraes regally dictated from deep alongside an impish finish to keep his goal tally ticking over.

CM: Joe Willock – 7/10 – Surging forward from midfield, Willock offered the extra body in the box their opponents so often lacked.

RW: Jacob Murphy – 8/10 – The former Canary was treated to a warmly received ripple of applause midway through the first half – an act of appreciation the Carrow Road crowd replicated when he trotted off despite playing a heavy role in every threatening move Newcastle conducted.

ST: Joelinton – 8/10 – On his 100th Premier League appearance, Joelinton was shifted into a more advanced role but continued to bound around the pitch with the same enthusiasm on top of the added bonus of goals.

LW: Allan Saint-Maximin – 6/10 – Drifting around the top end of the pitch, Saint-Maximin added a flourish on the fringes rather than stamping his mark at the epicentre of Newcastle’s attacks.

SUB: Miguel Almiron (67′ for Joelinton) – 6/10

SUB: Matt Ritchie (75′ for Murphy) – N/A

SUB: Dwight Gayle (87′ for Guimaraes) – N/A