Newcastle United secured their first Premier League clean sheet in 13 matches as Crystal Palace’s winless run extended to five.
Here’s what we saw in and learned from Sunday’s match at St James’ Park.
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BRUNO HAULS AGAIN
Back-to-back goals for Bruno Guimaraes (£7.1m) means the Brazilian has now got more double-digit hauls (DD, below) to his name than any other Fantasy midfielder this season.
Very much in the Declan Rice (£7.2m) bracket of ‘how long can this go on?’, Guimaraes continues to make light of the underlying numbers and even positioning.
Eddie Howe moved him to a ‘six’ role midway through Saturday’s match, yet still Guimaraes popped up with a goal – albeit from a set play. That was his seventh strike of the season.
No midfielder, you’ll probably be unsurprised to hear, has exceeded their xG more this season (below). Then again, he’s done better than Opta has ‘expected’ in all of his seasons since joining Newcastle! An above-average finisher, that would suggest.
One advantage that Bruno has over peers like Anthony Gordon (£7.4m) is expected minutes. Eddie Howe is not completely averse to resting the Brazilian; he has benched him twice in the league this season.
But when he does start, he generally lasts the course. He’s finished the game in 15 of his 18 starts, lasting 85+ minutes on the other three occasions.
“I suppose it’s a subconscious thing. It’s not necessarily a conscious thing to say I’m never going to take Bruno, to take any player off the pitch, if I feel it benefits the team. It’s not about sort of the individual person, it’s about what they’re giving the team and it’s a subconscious thing that he I feel he’s contributing in whatever way that I figure that’s important in that moment. He’s just got that big character and that dependability that I don’t really want to lose from the team when he’s playing well.
“And today, in that type of game, I want him to have more influence. So, that’s why I ended up moving him deeper because I wanted to get him on the ball more. I wanted to have more influence on the game and I felt with the substitutions that we made, I think the team improved and we gained more control with him in that position ultimately. Then he scores the goal from a set piece, but I think he’s been brilliant in recent weeks.” – Eddie Howe on Bruno Guimaraes
PRAISE – BUT ALSO CAUTION – FOR £4.5M MIDFIELDER MILEY
Lewis Miley (£4.5m) teed up Bruno for that decisive goal. This was his fifth successive Premier League start, the last four of them coming at right-back.
The budget FPL midfielder was outstanding again. It begs the question: will he keep starting in this Newcastle United side, despite the squad being mostly healthy again?
Howe called his performance “unbelievable” – but did sound a bit more cautionary about upcoming minutes when asked after full-time.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone’s undroppable. I think it’s got to be every game, I’ll try and make an independent decision on what I think what’s best for the team in that game. We’ve got to remember Lewis’s age, where we have to manage his body. He’s had a few injuries before where he’s played a lot of games in quick succession. So, who knows what the future looks like for him. But I think what he’s done is he’s shown he can play that role, which is a great thing for him in his career.
“We’ve got players coming back from injury that can add a lot in that position as well. So, as I say, I’ll just make a decision based on the next game and who knows what that will be.” – Eddie Howe on if Lewis Miley is undroppable on current form
TRIPPIER, BOTMAN + LIVRAMENTO RETURN FROM INJURY
Another reason for the Miley caution is the return of two orthodox right-back options, Kieran Trippier (£4.9m) and Tino Livramento (£4.9m).
Both were among the substitutes on Sunday, with the versatile Livramento replacing Lewis Hall (£5.3m) at left-back for the final half an hour.
Sven Botman (£4.9m) was also back on the bench after a month or so out.
“They’ve had one or two days of training, very minimal time back on the training pitch. We’ve got to be careful with them and manage them correctly.” – Eddie Howe on his returning defenders
Expect Hall’s minutes to be more managed going forward, reinforcing Malick Thiaw (£5.1m) as the most rotation-proof route into Newcastle’s defence.
Thiaw bagged a 17-pointer here, nodding in the Magpies’ second goal and claiming DefCon points for the seventh occasion. He’s among the top five defenders for big chances (five) this season and top 10 for shots in the box (13).
GORDON AT RISK IN GAMEWEEK 21?
Anthony Gordon (£7.4m) started his sixth league match in a row, meanwhile, and his third of this busy post-Christmas period.
While he’s looked lively in recent weeks, this one seemed to be a start too far. A tired-looking display ended after just 62 minutes, with Harvey Barnes (£6.1m) coming on.
Barnes had a game-high three shots, including one breakaway effort that Dean Henderson (£5.1m) brilliantly saved.
“We wanted to get Harvey’s goalscoring instinct onto the pitch and I thought he did really well, Harvey, when he came on. I think he made a big difference.” – Eddie Howe on Harvey Barnes
Gordon’s minutes look a bit iffy for Wednesday, then, but the saving grace could be the fitness of Newcastle’s two other wingers.
Anthony Elanga (£6.5m) again missed out, while Jacob Murphy (£6.0m) hobbled off late on.
“Jacob was just feeling a bit of awareness in his hamstrings.” – Eddie Howe
MORE SET-PIECE GOAL CONCESSIONS FROM PALACE
Move over Bournemouth and West Ham United, there’s a new team with an Achilles heel at set plays in town.
Crystal Palace are now bottom for set-piece goals conceded in 2025/26.
There’s been a glut of them in recent weeks, with seven flying in from mid-December.
“Most disappointment for me is conceding another two goals from set plays. Five of our last six defeats, we just conceded goals from set plays. It was at Strasburg, Man United, Leeds, Tottenham and today. And then you can’t win games. And this is what we have to get sorted.” – Oliver Glasner
Oliver Glasner cited the absence of physical presences like Chris Richards (£4.4m), Daniel Munoz (£5.8m) and Ismaila Sarr (£6.4m) as a mitigating factor. Another one, Jefferson Lerma (£4.9m), came off early on Sunday before Newcastle scored twice.
Aston Villa will be the next club to try and exploit that weakness. The Villans haven’t really got a Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.6m) type, however, with no one registering more than three headed set-piece efforts – a total that Ezri Konsa (£4.4m) and some-time corner taker Youri Tielemans (£5.9m) share – all season.
JOHNSON DEBUT + PALACE INJURY LATEST
Brennan Johnson (£6.5m) made his Palace debut, lining up as the right-sided ’10’ as expected. It’ll be interesting to see how Glasner accommodates him and Sarr when the latter returns from the Africa Cup of Nations.
It’s far too early to gauge Johnson’s potential impact but he did look like a good fit, often the most advanced of the front three and looking to get behind the Newcastle defence.
“He showed what he will bring us, what he will bring to the team with his runs. Of course, I could see in a few situations, the understanding with his teammates was not here – but how after one day of training [is that possible]?” – Oliver Glasner on Brennan Johnson
There won’t be much threat to his place in Gameweek 21. Glasner said he wasn’t expecting anyone back for the Villa game, with Lerma (concussion) and Nathaniel Clyne (£3.8m, groin/hip) potentially added to a lengthy injury list.
“We hope that a few players will come back in the next 2-4 weeks, especially Danny Munoz and Ismaila Sarr. Chris Richards as well. This will help us, yes we know, but now it’s in three days, nobody will come back. I think Jeff Lerma is out because it was a concussion substitution and let’s assess Clyne.” – Oliver Glasner
A Palace side running on fumes actually did well to compete with Newcastle for most of Sunday’s game. Had Will Hughes‘ (£4.7m) poked effort in first-half injury gone in, we might have had a different outcome. That was the Eagles’ only ‘big chance’ of the match, however.
