Gordon powers Newcastle to victory over Man United

Arsenal extend Premier League lead, Burnley score five

FE Team | Published: December 03, 2023 22:07:47

NEWCASTLE, England, Dec 03 (Agencies): Anthony Gordon scored for the fourth straight home game for Newcastle to earn a 1-0 win over Manchester United in the English Premier League on Saturday.
The winger tapped in from close range from Kieran Trippier's cross in the 55th minute for the only goal of a game Newcastle dominated at St. James' Park.
It ended a run of three victories in a row without conceding for Man United, which was overtaken by Newcastle and dropped to seventh place.
Already hit hard by a long list of absentees that is into double figures, Newcastle saw goalkeeper Nick Pope helped off in the 86th with a suspected dislocated left shoulder sustained when he dived to stop a ball that was blocked in front of him.
"It's looks bad," Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said. "He's done it before and had it operated on and come back successfully. But I don't know what the future holds for him, I don't know if he will need an operation or not."
Pope's replacement, Martin Dubravka, let in a goal in the 89th from a rare chance for United but it was disallowed for offside against Harry Maguire, who unwittingly deflected home a shot from substitute Antony.
Trippier is contributing as much in attack as he is in defense for Newcastle. It was a league-leading seventh assist of the campaign for the right back, who struck the underside of the crossbar from a free kick in the first half.
Both teams were coming off draining and, in some ways, demoralizing away trips in Europe midweek. Newcastle conceded a contentious equalizer deep into stoppage time against Paris Saint-Germain and Man United was held by Galatasaray to 3-3 despite twice holding a two-goal lead.
United appeared to lack energy against Newcastle, having only one shot on target and conceding 22 attempts.
"Of course there are lots of danger signs for any team when you have to put them into another game so quickly," Howe said.
"What I was concerned about was the response that we would have after conceding such a late goal in Paris. It would have been easy to feel sorry for ourselves after that, but we rolled our sleeves up and were excellent again tonight."
Meanwhile, Arsenal survived a late scare against Wolves on Saturday to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League as Burnley lifted themselves off the bottom with a 5-0 trouncing of 10-man Sheffield United.
The big win for Vincent Kompany's men briefly sent Everton to the foot of the table but Sean Dyche's team beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 in the evening kick-off to edge clear.
Mikel Arteta's Gunners, brimming with confidence after their 6-0 hammering of Lens in the Champions League in midweek, raced into a 2-0 lead at the Emirates within 13 minutes.
Bukayo Saka opened the scoring and Arsenal doubled their lead when Oleksandr Zinchenko cut the ball back for Martin Odegaard, who picked out the bottom corner as they threatened to run riot.
The home side came agonizingly close to a third goal when Gabriel Martinelli cannoned a shot off the post toward the end of the first half.
But they failed to put the game to bed and were made to sweat when Wolves forward Matheus Cunha found the top corner in the 86th minute to set up a tense finale.
Despite the wobble, Arsenal, last year's runners-up, held on to win 2-1 and notch their 10th win in 14 league games, which moves them four points clear of champions Manchester City, who host Tottenham on Sunday.
"I can only praise the players," said Arteta.
"They were excellent. We played against a really good side and generated so much and conceded almost nothing. The scoreline should have been very different. We were very unlucky because we hit the post three times I think.