Eddie Howe has vowed that Newcastle United are not doing anything 'intentionally' other than 'playing our hardest' after Manchester United were the latest side rattled by the Magpies.
Newcastle leapfrogged Manchester United into third place following a 2-0 victory against the Red Devils at St James' Park on Sunday. In truth, it could have been more; Newcastle had 22 shots, six times as many shots on target and nearly double the amount of corners than the visitors during a dominant display.
The intensity that Newcastle played with served as the perfect riposte to Erik ten Hag's remarks before the game, when the Manchester United boss said 'we know they delay', after the Dutchman made similar comments before the Carabao Cup final five weeks previously. Yet, tellingly, it was Manchester United shot-stopper David de Gea who was taking his time with goal kicks from the off.
READ MORE: Newcastle make mockery of ten Hag dig as Eddie Howe reacts to Manchester United touchline spat
How ironic, then, that ten Hag took issue with Nick Pope doing likewise late on, which led to Howe standing up to his opposite number on the touchline during a heated exchange. When asked if his team had got under the skin of their rivals, after previously irking Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, Howe could only laugh a few days on.
"I don't know - you will have to ask them that!" the Newcastle head coach told reporters. "All we are trying to do is try and win the game that we are playing, the next game. We are not doing anything intentionally other than playing our hardest to compete to win the match."
There was certainly no doubt about that at the weekend. Indeed, even after Joe Willock broke the deadlock midway through the second half, Howe went for a killer second goal and threw on Joelinton, Anthony Gordon, Elliot Anderson and Callum Wilson rather than shutting up shop. That ambition was rewarded late on when Wilson doubled the hosts' advantage after the substitute headed home from Kieran Trippier's free-kick.
It was a goal and victory that Newcastle savoured just 35 days after the pain of that cup final defeat at Wembley - and those comments by ten Hag. Jacob Murphy was among those who revealed the Manchester United boss' words 'didn't sit right with me and some of the boys in the team' and the Newcastle winger even jokingly pointed to his imaginary watch as he made his way off the field at full-time on Sunday. Even the measured Howe said he did not get 'where this time-wasting nonsense has come from'.
"Our first intention is to always play the game and, as I said after the game, we want the ball in play," he reiterated on Tuesday. "I encourage my players all the time to get the ball back in play very quickly.
"We want to play at a high tempo. We want to try and wear teams down physically so that goes against what was said about us.
"Of course, there are times in games where you have to manage the game, you have to use experience, you have to do whatever you can to get a positive result. I'm not saying we won't do that, either, but, certainly, that is not our first intention in any game."
Newcastle will now look to build on that crucial victory at the London Stadium on Wednesday night as the Magpies bid to strengthen their grip on a place in the top four against West Ham. That is a prospect that is driving the players on as they prepare for the second of three games in less than a week, and Howe stressed there is a 'real inner determination, a steeliness about us, that we're not here to waste time'.
Wherever Newcastle end up, the club are drawing up plans and budgets for each eventuality and Howe admitted his side's final position in the table will 'dictate to a large part of what we can and can't do in the summer'.
“There is a huge amount of work for us to do on every level," he added. "Football never stands still. The teams competing with us will all try and do the same thing. We need to be smart with what we do and we are on a journey that is accelerating very quickly and we need to match that with our decision making."
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