Shelvey’s free-kick gives Newcastle crucial and timely win at Leeds

Eddie Howe has said he does not know whether he will meet Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah next week but any conversation with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler is bound to be considerably easier after this.

Newcastle’s manager is not taking his players to a warm weather training camp on the Red Sea coast until Sunday but at the final whistle he resembled a man feeling the sun on his back for the first time following a long, hard winter.

Jonjo Shelvey’s second-half free-kick secured Howe’s Saudi-owned side only their second win of the season, lifting Newcastle to the heady heights of 18th place. They still only have 15 points but they are only one short of Norwich, four shy of Everton and only seven behind Leeds; suddenly one of the Premier League’s greatest escapes look feasible.

Marcelo Bielsa’s alternately despairing and infuriated body language highlighted the severity of this blow to his Leeds team who, not for the first time, failed to turn dominance into goals before coming undone at a set piece.

Gareth Southgate looked on from the stands and, after witnessing some of the early wobbles among Newcastle’s defence, England’s 51-year-old manager might well have fancied his chances of rolling back the years and getting a game at centre-half for Howe’s side.

Only a fine, point-blank save on Martin Dubravka’s part kept Dan James’s shot out after a wonderfully fluid attacking move also featuring Rodrigo and Raphinha. Slick and quick, Leeds persistently dissected Newcastle with the ease of a knife slicing through butter. Paul Dummett is an underrated, positionally intelligent, left-back but he joined a long line of counterparts who have struggled to contain Raphinha.

On the opposite flank Stuart Dallas impressed enormously as an