Full Time
Newcastle beat Hull City 2-1 at St James' Park, with a blistering start settling it inside the opening ten minutes — Joe Willock finished from close range in the 3rd minute, and Lewis Hall doubled the lead four minutes later with a low strike from the edge of the box. Hull hit back through Mohamed-Ali Cho in the 67th minute, just moments after coming off the bench, but couldn't find an equaliser despite pushing hard late on. It was that early double that did the damage rather than any drama — no red cards, just a game Hull never really got a foothold in after the first ten minutes. The result lifts Newcastle to 8 points from five games and up to 4th in the Matchweek 5 standings. Hull's unbeaten start comes to an end, but with 8 points of their own and a place just above Newcastle on goal difference, this newly promoted side continues to look every bit like a top-half team.
Pre-match Talking Points
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1Newcastle's honeymoon under new boss Matthias Jaissle came to an abrupt halt in midweek — a 4-1 mauling away at Leeds was their first defeat of the season, and they'll want an answer before everyone scatters for three weeks of international football. Hull, meanwhile, are just trying to keep doing what they've been doing: sitting handily in the top half as a newly promoted side and quietly making a mockery of anyone who wrote them off back in August.
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2This isn't a fixture with much recent history — Hull's last Premier League trips to St James' Park came the best part of a decade ago, before their relegation from the top flight in 2017. Consider this their reintroduction, and a chance for Newcastle to remind them, gently or otherwise, what they've been missing.
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3Oli McBurnie is Hull's obvious focal point up front, and there's a nice bit of poetry to it — he's the man whose stoppage-time goal in the playoff final is the reason they're in the Premier League at all. Watch how much the away end enjoys every touch he gets; earning this trip back to the top flight clearly still means something.
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4Newcastle have kept only two clean sheets in their last twenty league matches and have shipped more goals than almost anyone else in that run, so their defensive record is the real story here, not just one bad night at Leeds. There's also real concern off the pitch — Nobel Mendy was taken to hospital with a head injury during the draw with Chelsea, and everyone at the club will simply want good news on that front before anything else.
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5Hull are trying to become the first promoted club to go unbeaten through their opening five Premier League matches since Portsmouth managed it back in 2003-04. It's a lovely, slightly mad thing to be chasing in September, and reason enough to check the score even if you couldn't have placed Hull on a map three months ago.
Team Talking Points
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1Newcastle's last game was a 1-1 draw at Fulham. Jacob Murphy scored a 25-yard screamer, and it lasted all of three minutes before Rodrigo Muniz equalised. Muniz hadn't scored in 15 months, which made it extra annoying.
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2They also had a Dan Burn goal ruled out after VAR spotted a foul by Yoane Wissa in the build-up. Manager Matthias Jaissle called it 'soft' and said his side did enough to win. Agree that it was soft and you'll make a friend for life.
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3Jaissle also called the draw 'a step in the right direction after the last performance'. That tells you the last performance wasn't great. Newcastle sit roughly mid-table on 12 points from 10 games, about four points clear of the drop zone and four off the top six.
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4That puts them in a very Premier League kind of limbo: not in trouble, not in contention. A couple of wins and the talk is Europe. A couple of defeats and people start looking nervously over their shoulders.
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5The first game back after the break is a big one. Leaders Arsenal visit St James' Park on Saturday 21 November. A win there would change the mood around the club overnight, and fans know it.
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Top thing to say down the pub
If VAR hadn't chalked off Dan Burn's goal at Fulham, we'd be talking about the top six, not 'a step in the right direction'.
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Avoid saying
"Newcastle are the richest club in the world, they should be winning everything." Fans have heard it a thousand times. Spending rules mean the money hasn't turned into the trophy-a-season machine people imagine, so you'll get a long lecture on profit and sustainability.
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1Hull lost 1-0 at league leaders Arsenal on Saturday. Martin Ødegaard pounced on a rebound in the 72nd minute after Hull's keeper parried a Noni Madueke shot. Losing narrowly at the Emirates is no disgrace for a promoted side, and Hull fans know it.
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2Manager Sergej Jakirovic was bullish afterwards. He reckoned Hull were the better team on performance and had enough chances to win, adding that the side is 'still growing'. Arsenal fans would disagree, but it's a nice sign that he's not playing for damage limitation.
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3The season started like a dream. Hull had seven points from their first three games and briefly sat second, behind only Manchester City. They haven't won a league game since August, though. It's a winless run of the sort that slowly turns a fairytale into a relegation conversation.
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4Jakirovic only arrived in the summer of 2025 and took Hull up through the Championship play-offs at the first attempt. That's a genuinely impressive bit of work, and Hull fans are still very much on his side. Credit him and you'll be on safe ground.
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5The last outing before Arsenal was a 2-2 draw with fellow promoted side Ipswich, where Hull let a lead slip. Jakirovic publicly demanded better 'control' when they're ahead. Throwing away winning positions is the recurring theme of their autumn.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Hull went to the Emirates and made Arsenal sweat. They just need to remember how to actually win one before the winless run starts to matter.
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Avoid saying
"Hull will be straight back down" — said with total confidence in August, it looked silly when they were second in the table, and fans have not forgotten who was saying it.