Newcastle boost Champions League hopes with Eddie Howe in hospital

Howe was hospitalised on Friday having been taken ill, and speaking prior to the match, assistant Jason Tindall revealed he'd had little involvement in preparations for Sunday's game.

Tindall told Sky Sports: "I think when you've been ill all week it's very difficult to have the kind of input that I'm sure he'd normally have, but the way we work we know the expectations, we've got a fantastic group of players, and they know the demands that the manager and everybody else will put on them, so it's important that they go out and deliver the performance that the manager will be proud of."

Newcastle did that, taking the lead through a fine goal from Sandro Tonali, then responding to Alejandro Garnacho's equaliser thanks to a brace from Harvey Barnes before Bruno Guimaraes capped a dominant display which saw them climb to fourth place in the Premier League table.

That was made possible by Chelsea's 2-2 draw at home against Ipswich, who had led 2-0, and the five sides seemingly battling for three Champions League spots alongside Liverpool and Arsenal are now separated by only three points.

Newcastle are the only side in the top seven who have a game in hand which comes on Wednesday, when they host Crystal Palace. Should they win, they will enter next weekend in third place.

United were poor for the most part, generating just one big chance, and it was a tough day for goalkeeper Altay Bayindir who was brought in to replace Andre Onana.

Ruben Amorim dropped Onana from the matchday squad altogether and said: "Of course, you have to see the context. It is a normal thing. Sometimes, you have to push the player to play again, sometimes you have to let him disconnect a little bit.

"Tomorrow, he will be in training to prepare for the next one so I felt that it was a good time for Andre to disconnect."

Also on Sunday, Liverpool scored late to beat West Ham 2-1, while Tottenham suffered another miserable defeat, this time 4-2 at Wolves.

Under-fire Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou left Son Heung-min out of his squad due to a minor foot injury and kept Micky van de Ven on the bench ahead of a massive Europa League trip to Frankfurt on Thursday.

His side created plenty but their defensive woes, typified by an own goal from Djed Spence, were again costly as Wolves moved to within two points of them, and three of United, in the table.

"It's a funny old game," Postecoglou told Sky Sports. "The performance wasn't too bad, but obviously the goals we conceded made it really difficult for us. In general I thought we were well in the game, but we just kept conceding very poor goals."

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