Newcastle United’s unbeaten start to the season came to a juddering halt on Monday as Leeds United walloped the Magpies 4-1 at Elland Road.
In doing so, Daniel Farke’s side extended their own undefeated run and climbed to third in the Premier League table.
Here are our Scout Notes from the match.
NEWCASTLE INJURY UPDATE
Newcastle’s cause wasn’t helped by three injuries.
Nico Gonzalez (£5.5m) came off early on after taking a blow to the head, while Jacob Ramsey (£4.9m) couldn’t feature after injuring his thigh in the warm-up.
Anthony Elanga (£6.2m), meanwhile, missed out entirely with a potentially significant unspecified injury.
Assuming Gonzalez has to observe the concussion protocol, Newcastle could be without all three midfielders in Gameweek 5.
“With Nico, you know, as a manager and also we as a club, we have the responsibility if he had that knockout feeling, as you all saw… to take him off the pitch. Even though he looked fine, there are also some rules especially for that occasion. Independent of how important he is and how important it is to win a match, we are all human beings as well, and we take that seriously. So, therefore, we took the decision to take him off the pitch.” – Matthias Jaissle on Nico Gonzalez
“With Anthony, it’s obviously struggles with an injury. We need to further now investigate how serious it is but at the moment, it doesn’t look good.” – Matthias Jaissle on Anthony Elanga’s absence
“He felt his thigh in the warm up, so he was not able to play tonight.” – Matthias Jaissle on Jacob Ramsey
“It doesn’t look good at the moment.” – Matthias Jaissle on whether any of his injured players will be back in Gameweek 5
MEN AGAINST BOYS
It was 0-0 when Gonzalez came off. With Ramsey unusable and Joelinton (£5.4m) still out, it was left to the rookie pairing of Lewis Miley (£5.5m) and Sean Steur (£4.9m) – with an average age of 19 – to helm the midfield. With Matias Fernandez-Pardo (£6.0m) looking lost ahead of them on his Premier League debut, this one had a ‘men against boys’ feel. Leeds’ physical approach was just too much for a young, understrength Newcastle side.
“We couldn’t bring the fundamentals in football on the pitch. Duel behavior, the intensity of Leeds – we couldn’t match it.
“We were aware already… that with the young squad, we will have challenges. We will have up and downs. Today it was a big down.” – Matthias Jaissle
It was a perfect storm of events, really, with Leeds’ first three goals owing to inadvertent deflections and fortuitous bobbles.
Make no mistake, though, that the Whites – who created plenty besides – deserved this win. Newcastle’s first shot came in the 43rd minute, and that was their only effort in the box until they were 4-0 down:
Yoane Wissa (£6.2m) was probably the pick of the Newcastle attackers, not that that’s high praise. He twice nearly forced James Trafford (£5.0m) into errors, and it was from the striker’s driving run that Harvey Barnes (£6.0m) had Newcastle’s biggest chance of the match.
A 71st-minute missed header was Wissa’s only effort of the game, however.
BOTMAN TURNOVER OVERDRIVE
Above: Premier League teams sorted by expected goals conceded (xGC)
Newcastle now languish in the bottom five for both goals conceded (eight) and xGC (7.55). In truth, and while they’ve been spirited, they’ve not wholly convinced in league or cup since Gameweek 1.
The latest dodgy display from Sven Botman (£5.0m) didn’t help; Dan Burn‘s (£4.9m) return can’t come soon enough.
Still, that’s four pretty tricky fixtures out of the way. You wouldn’t say any of the next six matches square up to the four they’ve just had, so there’s still optimism for FPL managers who went (too) early on the Magpies in Gameweek 3 that they can still get some joy.
With three key midfield injuries, however, there are more reservations about buying many/any Newcastle players anew.
A KNOWN QUANTITY
Enough about Newcastle – let’s cheer Leeds.
The Whites belong to that small group of clubs, along with Everton and Brentford, who are a) playing under the same manager as last season and b) without the distraction of European football. Known quantities, with clear identities, without too much threat of rotation until we get to December. Perfect from a Fantasy perspective.
All three clubs, indeed, are still unbeaten in 2026/27.
THE TWO SIDES OF CALVERT-LEWIN, BOGLE HAULS AGAIN
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m) is a very known quantity – and often a frustrating one. A chronic xG underachiever, even here, he somehow conspired to miss a close-range chance with the ‘keeper on the deck. A header from eight yards out only went in after a deflection from Jayden Bogle (£4.5m), too.
Still, he was an absolute nightmare for Newcastle’s backline, and he took his goal well (via a lucky bounce).
Speaking of Bogle, he’s now FPL’s top-scoring player (!) thanks to back-to-back double-digit hauls:
He’s had some luck, mind. He’s twice been subbed off before Leeds have lost clean sheets, and he knew little about Monday’s goal, with Calvert-Lewin’s header flying in off his back.
But he was getting forward plenty against Newcastle, going close to scoring with a close-range shot before his inadvertent goal. The wing-back, indeed, has already spoken about Farke’s instruction for him to make back-post runs.
Bogle had more penalty box touches (five) and shots (three) in this match than he’d had in Gameweeks 1-3 combined.
STACH UNLUCKY AS MUHAREMOVIC DELIVERS DEFCONS AGAIN
Goals for Calvert-Lewin and Bogle were sandwiched by a Miley own-goal and Noah Okafor‘s (£5.8m) strike. That was the Swiss winger’s first goal of the season.
Tarik Muharemovic (£5.0m) got in on the act, too, getting forward in open play to assist Calvert-Lewin.
Assists are probably his least likely source of returns, too. He nearly scored again from a set piece, while he bagged DefCon points for the third time in four matches. He was minutes away from a double-digit haul, only for his miskick to present Bazoumana Toure (£5.8m) with a consolation.
Anton Stach (£6.0m) was the bridesmaid here but, like last week, he could easily have scored. This time, a second-half chance hit the side netting. His set pieces caused problems, too.
A minor concern is that he’s been playing a bit further forward in the last two Gameweeks, almost in a front three with Calvert-Lewin and Okafor. Coincidence that he’s not hit the DefCon threshold on either occasion, then?
MATCH SUMMARY
