Joelinton seals victory for 10-man Newcastle against Southampton

As the advertisements on the electronic pitchside hoardings made one of their frequent switches to Arabic, Southampton briefly looked as flummoxed as a European tourist lost in the back streets of Jeddah.

On the pitch, Newcastle were pressing Russell Martin’s team so hard it seemed they were playing football in an entirely different, almost unfathomable, language. The Southampton manager’s body language became increasingly agitated but then, almost imperceptibly, Will Smallbone started conjuring a bit of time on the ball in midfield and everything began to start making perfect sense.

So much so that, after that torrid opening, the first two chances fell to the newly promoted visitors. No matter that both were miscued by Smallbone – with the second turned into the net by a clearly offside Jack Stephens and promptly disallowed – suddenly it was Eddie Howe’s turn to look rattled in the technical area.

On the 30-minute mark the Newcastle manager’s afternoon took a turn for the worse. The normally sensible Switzerland centre half Fabian Schär was shown a straight red card for allowing Ben Brereton Díaz to provoke him into head-butting the Southampton striker.

Admittedly it was not the most violent of butts and the subsequent am-dram collapse of Brereton Díaz, who was also booked, was as hammy as they come. But, albeit gently, Schär’s forehead clearly made contact with the forward’s face, and a red card was the only possible punishment.

Schär’s impending suspension, after a loss of control triggered when Brereton Díaz barged him over from behind in a ridiculous off-the-ball challenge, can only amplify Howe’s frustration at Crystal Palace’s decision to reject four separate bids for their £70m-rated England centre-half Marc Guehi.

At least Howe has Joelinton on his side. With half-time beckoning, the Brazil midfielder gave his side an unlikely lead after the Southampton goalkeeper, Alex McCarthy, made an ill-advised decision to pass straight to Alexander Isak as the visitors endeavoured to play out from the back. The Sweden striker had been experiencing a quiet afternoon but had no hesitation in picking Joelinton out with a neat lay-off.

His teammate Dan Burn looked ready to pick a fight in the tunnel at the interval and, with Burn having waited for Brereton Díaz to appear, a brief bout of argy-bargy erupted between the defender and Jan Bednarek.

Evidently undeterred, Brereton Díaz opened the second half by missing a sitter after the former Newcastle striker Adam Armstrong had a shot cleared off the line. Not long after, Nick Pope did extremely well to palm another Armstrong shot over the crossbar as Southampton dominated, ending the game with nearly 80% of the posesssion.

Unimpressed, Newcastle’s 10 men appeared on a mission to suggest that possession can sometimes be overrated. Defending obdurately while emphasising they are no slouches when it comes to time-wasting, they revelled in thwarting every attack. Indeed, with Burn, Joelinton and Sean Longstaff in a particularly bloody-minded mood, Southampton were destined to depart Tyneside empty handed.