Shelvey’s free-kick gives Newcastle crucial and timely win at Leeds

Eddie Howe has said he does not know whether he will meet Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah next week but any conversation with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler is bound to be considerably easier after this.

Newcastle’s manager is not taking his players to a warm-weather training camp on the Red Sea coast until Sunday but at the final whistle he resembled a man feeling the sun on his back for the first time following a long, hard winter.

Jonjo Shelvey’s second-half free-kick secured Howe’s Saudi-owned side only their second win of the season, lifting Newcastle to the heady heights of 18th place. They still only have 15 points but they are only one short of Norwich, four shy of Everton and only seven behind Leeds; suddenly one of the Premier League’s greatest escapes look feasible.

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Marcelo Bielsa’s alternately despairing and infuriated body language highlighted the severity of this blow to his Leeds team who, not for the first time, failed to turn dominance into goals before coming undone at a set piece.

Gareth Southgate looked on from the stands and, after witnessing some of the early wobbles among Newcastle’s defence, England’s 51-year-old manager might well have fancied his chances of rolling back the years and getting a game at centre-half for Howe’s side.

Only a fine, point-blank save on Martin Dubravka’s part kept Dan James’s shot out after a wonderfully fluid attacking move also featuring Rodrigo and Raphinha. Slick and quick, Leeds persistently dissected Newcastle with the ease of a knife slicing through butter.

Paul Dummett is an underrated, positionally intelligent, left-back but he joined a long line of counterparts who have struggled to contain Raphinha.

On the opposite flank Stuart Dallas impressed enormously as an attacking left-back for Bielsa’s side and his dangerous attacking incursions frequently prevented Howe’s right-back Kieran Trippier from acting as a visiting attacking catalyst.

The resultant shortage of crosses left Newcastle’s £25m one-time Leeds centre-forward Chris Wood largely isolated, with his side’s principal hope of a goal hinging on the sort of odd bright counterattacking moment which concluded with Ilan Meslier doing very well to save Shelvey’s volley.

Generally, though, Meslier was well protected by a 4-1-4-1 system featuring Robin Koch, Bielsa’s German centre-half, doing a decent job serving as a midfield anchor in the enduring, injury-induced absence of Kalvin Phillips. Koch’s influence emphasised Howe’s need for a midfield enforcer in addition to at least one new central defender.

Bielsa could have done without Patrick Bamford being, once again, sidelined by injury. In the absence of their key striker, Leeds could not make their dominance and dynamism count and had no one to polish off Raphinha’s deliveries.

If Howe’s team invariably looked in trouble when Leeds moved the ball wide, Bielsa became agitated every time Allan Saint-Maximin assumed possession for Newcastle. It was not Saint-Maximin’s best game but he still fazed a Leeds team unable to capitalise on Jamaal Lascelles’s central defensive weaknesses.

Newcastle’s captain has not been at his best lately and here Lascelles repeatedly forfeited possession, often around the halfway line. Indeed he injured himself attempting to retrieve one such concession of possession and limped off to be replaced by Ciaran Clark.

By then Howe had already lost Joelinton and Dummett to injury but, for once, not quite everything was going against him. When Diego Llorente dragged the overlapping Javier Manquillo, on for Dummett, back Leeds conceded a free-kick in a dangerous position just outside the box.

Shelvey bent it low and the ball evaded everyone en route past the previously assured but horribly wrong footed Meslier who could only help the ball on its journey into the back of the net.

After that Llorente cleared off the line to deny Ryan Fraser, Saint-Maximin was furious not to have had a penalty after being upended by Koch and Meslier saved smartly to keep Joe Willock’s shot out.