Bruno Guimarães downs Southampton as Newcastle surge continues

Perhaps it was inevitable given how the half-time playlist gleefully segued between Dirty Cash (Money Talks), Price Tag and Can’t Buy Me Love that a divine second-half intervention from Newcastle’s marquee January signing, Bruno Guimarães, would earn a sixth win in seven matches and extend Eddie Howe’s unbeaten streak to nine Premier League games.

Chris Wood, another mid-season recruit, scored his first goal for the club to cancel out Southampton’s first-half opener before Guimarães’s touch of class sealed a victory that lifts Newcastle 10 points above the relegation zone and within four of the top half.

It was hard to begrudge the sold-out away end enjoying the moment, even if some of the songs felt delightfully far-fetched. For Ralph Hasenhüttl, whose Southampton side have lost successive games for the first time since November, defeat would have only rammed home his frustration.

Hasenhüttl had aired a few gripes – or what could be perceived as sour grapes – about Newcastle being able to name a “completely different team” compared to the one Southampton would have faced at the end of December and argued new signings should have been ineligible for this rearranged game, the original fixture postponed owing to Covid and injuries. Four of Newcastle’s January recruits started here, including Guimarães, who had been drip-fed minutes off the bench since his £40m arrival from Lyon.

He replaced the injured Joelinton in their three-man midfield and a fifth, Kieran Trippier, again travelled to the game with the squad despite being on crutches after fracturing a foot. Allan Saint-Maximin missed the game through illness.

Newcastle’s travelling 3,300-strong support enjoyed Dan Burn’s early challenge on Armando Broja, but it was