Newcastle, United Kingdom - Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe hailed his side after their 4-0 demolition of Aston Villa on Saturday, saying it was one of their best games so far and singling out his goal-scorers for special praise.
Only a late winner for Tottenham Hotspur away to Bournemouth stopped the Magpies from going third in the table thanks to a magnificent win and some great goals, including a penalty and a header from Callum Wilson and a superb strike by Miguel Almiron.
"The lads really competed well. It was a bitty first half, very stop-start, thankfully in the second half we were outstanding. That is up there with one of the best performances of the season," Howe told Sky Sports.
"I'm really pleased for Callum, penalties are never easy but he put it away well. He was at the heart of a lot of our good football... it was an outstanding finish by Miguel," he added.
Newcastle are fourth in the table on 24 points, but Villa slipped back to 15th on 12 points after a disappointing display.
Villa interim boss Aaron Danks, who saw his side win 4-0 against Brentford last week only to lose by the same score here, was sanguine at the final whistle.
"The league is ruthless and can punish you when you are not having good moments. The penalty was the right decision. We knew they would have a spell of momentum and they were ruthless. The scoreline looks big and it hurts, but that is what the league can do," he told the BBC.
"Newcastle were intelligent in the way they positioned their players. There were little tactical moments that hurt us. You have to find ways of staying in games in those moments. Unfortunately the game went away from us," he added.
Former Arsenal manager Unai Emery will take the reins at Villa from Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Spurs manager Antonio Conte praised his team for playing "more nasty" as they roared back from 2-0 down to beat Bournemouth 3-2.
Once again Spurs struggled to maintain a high level throughout 90 minutes - a mark of their recent slump - as Bournemouth led with two goals by Kieffer Moore.
But Tottenham dominated after going two down in the 49th minute with Ryan Sessegnon and Ben Davies levelling it up before Rodrigo Bentancur struck a stoppage-time winner to keep the London side in third place in the table.
It was a welcome return to winning ways after league defeats against Manchester United and Newcastle United had put a dampener on an impressive start to the season.
But Conte said his players should not have to wait until they are in trouble before finding some spark - a similar situation to this week's Champions League draw with Sporting when Bentancur scored a late leveller.
"I have to be honest, and also, after the first half, my feeling was positive," Conte told reporters. "The only situation that I ask of my players is that we are to show more personality and take more responsibility because this game was on us.
"I think in the second half, despite conceding the second goal, we started to play nasty, with a will and desire to hurt the opponent. To not only move the ball and show 'Look, we are good and so nice' but in an effective way.
"I think we created many chances to score and at the end we won the game in a difficult stadium because Bournemouth is a really good team."
Reuters