Leicester City 0-3 Newcastle: Hosts make unwanted history as Murphy nets twice

Newcastle United boosted their Champions League hopes and pushed Leicester City closer to the Championship with a comfortable 3-0 win at the King Power Stadium.

After fellow European hopefuls Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Manchester City dropped points over the weekend, Newcastle took their chance to go fifth in the Premier League.

They did so in emphatic fashion, with two Jacob Murphy goals putting them 2-0 up within 11 minutes of kick-off. 

Murphy's first came when Harvey Barnes found Tino Livramento on the overlap, and the young full-back's cross gave him the simplest of finishes at the back post.

His second came from a bizarre passage of play, as Fabian Schar spotted Mads Hermansen off his line and hit the crossbar with an audacious shot from beyond the halfway line.

With the Leicester defenders on their heels, Murphy collected the loose ball and poked home.

It was a similar story when Newcastle went 3-0 up in the 34th minute. Hermansen parried Joelinton's shot, and Barnes was the only player to react as he stabbed in the rebound.

Leicester struck both posts through a Patson Daka shot, but that was their only effort of note as they were booed off at half-time and full-time.

Newcastle – who are already guaranteed Europa Conference League qualification as a minimum – go one point clear of Man City and are only behind Chelsea on goal difference, with a game in hand on all the teams around them.

Leicester, meanwhile, stay 15 points adrift of 17th-placed Wolves with just 21 to play for, and their relegation could be confirmed after their next two games.

Data debrief: Limp Leicester make unwanted history

Ruud van Nistelrooy looked resigned to defeat within two minutes of Monday's game, shaking his head on the touchline as Murphy prodded home.

And his Leicester team have now made unwanted history as the first team to ever lose eight successive home league games without scoring in England's top four tiers.

When they face Brighton on Saturday, they could match Crystal Palace's record as the only team to go nine Premier League games overall without a goal, set in January 1995. 

Van Nistelrooy, meanwhile, is only the second manager in Premier League history to lose eight consecutive home matches, after Daniel Farke did so with Norwich City in September 2021.

The Foxes did at least have something to celebrate when Jeremy Monga came on for his Premier League debut at the age of 15 years and 271 days. 

He is the second-youngest player to ever appear in the competition, after Ethan Nwaneri on his debut for Arsenal in September 2022 (15 years, 181 days).