Newcastle United cruise to three-goal win over Wolverhampton Wanderers

Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon struck in the first half during a rain-soaked encounter, and while Gary O'Neil's men showed fleeting signs of promise in the second period, an unorthodox Tino Livramento effort put the cherry on the Magpies' cake.

While Wolves were left to rue the absence of key attacker Hwang Hee-chan and Tottenham Hotspur hero Joao Gomes, Newcastle welcomed Martin Dubravka back to the starting XI after Loris Karius's unsuccessful outing against Arsenal.

O'Neil's men took the game to the Magpies in the opening stages, albeit while doing little to ask any questions of Dubravka, and an unlucky 13th minute effort flew past Jose Sa as Newcastle quickly drew first blood.

Taking a leaf from Wolves' counter-attacking playbook, Newcastle sped away through the centre of the pitch through Gordon, who released Bruno Guimaraes into the Wolves penalty area.

The Brazilian's first-time strike was blocked by Craig Dawson, but the deflection looped up kindly for Isak, who could not miss with a close-range header against a scrambling Sa.

The visitors reacted well to falling a goal down and should have pegged Eddie Howe's men back from a 22nd-minute corner, but Toti failed to emulate Isak as his header from a few yards out cleared the bar.

Newcastle quickly took the game by the scruff of the neck again, though, and the hosts' merited second arrived in the 32nd minute, albeit thanks to a major defensive calamity on Wolves' end.

Sa charged out of his six-yard box to get his hand to a Jacob Murphy cross, but the ball rolled straight past the Portuguese goalkeeper's outstretched arm as he collided with Max Kilman, and the alert Gordon reacted quickest to lash home into an empty net.

Wolves' afternoon went from bad to worse when Sa and Pedro Neto had to be withdrawn at half time - Daniel Bentley and Nathan Fraser took their places - but Howe could soon empathise on the injury front, losing Kieran Trippier in the 52nd minute as Livramento came into the backline.

After missing a glorious chance at one end of the field in the first half, Toti was Wolves' saviour in his own box in the 56th minute, clearing a Joe Willock header off the line after the ex-Arsenal man got the better of Bentley.

Despite losing their chief creator and number one goalkeeper, Wolves momentarily threatened an unforeseen fightback approaching the final 20 minutes, as Fraser and Pablo Sarabia both called Dubravka into action in the 66th and 68th minutes respectively.

O'Neil's men could not sustain that threat as the clock ticked down, though, and the visitors could have found themselves 3-0 down in the 80th minute, but Bentley did well to thwart Miguel Almiron.

The third would arrive for Howe's men in the second minute of injury time, though, as a long Fabian Schar ball found the run of Livramento, who advanced into the Wolves penalty box, evaded a handful of red shirts and managed to poke the ball into the far side of the net while taking a tumble.

As well as leapfrogging Wolves, the Magpies have also jumped above Brighton & Hove Albion into eighth place in the table, as O'Neil's men drop to 10th, two points above Chelsea with a game in hand.

Newcastle are next in action at home to the Blues on March 11, two days after Wolves welcome Fulham to Molineux.