Newcastle dismantled a beleaguered Sheffield United in the Premier League as they notched an emphatic 8-0 win away at Bramall Lane, equalling their largest victory in the competition.
Incredibly, the Magpies’ conquest in the Steel City still does not rank atop of the largest away Premier League triumphs for a visiting team.
Here is a list of six of the biggest away Premier League wins, ranking from sixth to first…
By Joel Mians
Sheffield Wednesday 1 Nottingham Forest 7 – 1 April 1995
Sheffield United are not the only team from the city to have been on the end of a huge home Premier League thrashing. On April Fools’ Day 1995, it was Sheffield Wednesday’s turn, at the hands of Nottingham Forest, who were having a brilliant second Premier League campaign after suffering relegation in the inaugural edition two years earlier.
The away side raced into an early lead, courtesy of a gorgeous Stuart Pearce free-kick and a curled strike from Ian Woan four minutes later. After the break, Bryan Roy had Forest cruising at 4-1 up with a pair of well-worked goals, either side of a Mark Bright consolation for Wednesday.
A Stan Collymore brace and a late Lars Bohinen goal eventually put the seal on a stylish win at Hillsborough, on the way to a third-placed finish for Forest at the season’s end, the highest for a promoted team in the Premier League era.
Hull City 1 Spurs 7 – 21 May 2017
Embed from Getty ImagesHull City fell victims to Harry Kane chasing the Premier League Golden Boot on the final day of the season back in 2017. The Tigers were already relegated, but that did not stop Kane scoring two within three minutes early in the first-half, before Dele Alli added a third right before half-time.
Sam Clucas’ second-half goal for Hull seemed to signal the home side would at least go down fighting. Yet this fightback was swiftly snuffed out when a Victor Wanyama header and a hat-trick goal for Harry Kane put Spurs 5-1 up just six minutes later, before late goals for defenders Ben Davies and Toby Alderweireld sent Hull down to the Championship with an emphatic thud.
Crystal Palace 0 Liverpool 7 – 19 December 2020
Embed from Getty ImagesLiverpool limped over the line to a third-place finish in the 2020-21 COVID-hit Premier League season to secure Champions League qualification. However, there were no signs of any major crisis away at Crystal Palace in December when Takumi Minamino opened the scoring for the Reds after just three minutes. Masterful finishes from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino had the visitors strolling into a 3-0 lead at Selhurst Park by half time.
Jurgen Klopp’s reigning champions were just as relentless after the break when excellent goals from Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino maintained Liverpool’s dominance before a late brace from Mohamed Salah inflicted a sobering defeat on Crystal Palace, their all-time heaviest league loss. The only consolation? The scoreline didn’t reach their all-time record defeat, again versus Liverpool, a 9-0 drubbing back in September 1989.
Nottingham Forest 1 Manchester Utd 8 – 1999
An exciting, open-ended thriller looked on the cards when Nottingham Forest took on a treble-chasing Manchester United back in February 1999 after three goals were scored in the first seven minutes of this encounter. Dwight Yorke took just two minutes to put United in front. Alan Rogers equalised for Forest four minutes later, but Andy Cole took less than a minute to restore the away side’s lead.
Yorke and Cole each added to their tallies in the second half for United, but the evening took a much more sinister turn for Forest on the 72nd minute when striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer entered the pitch. The ‘baby-faced assassin’ was at his most ruthless here, scoring four goals in the last ten minutes, which transformed a tough loss for former United manager Ron Atkinson into an utter humiliation.
Sheffield United 0 Newcastle 8 – 2023
Embed from Getty ImagesSheffield United were hoping to earn their first league win of the Premier League campaign at home to Newcastle after a series of narrow defeats and a draw so far this season. What ultimately followed was anything but a tight contest, as the Magpies decimated the Blades at Bramall Lane, with unerring ease.
A controversial Sean Longstaff goal broke the deadlock for the away side before headers from defenders Dan Burn and Sven Botman made it 3-0 going into the break. Kieran Trippier then completed a hat-trick of assists, with his cross supplying Callum Wilson for the game’s fourth. Anthony Gordon capped an excellent performance with a superb curled goal, and Miguel Almiron slotted in a sixth as home fans streamed out from Bramall Lane.
Bruno Guimarães’ later smashed in the seventh, before Alexander Isak’s late dinked finish meant Newcastle became the first team to have eight different goalscorers in a Premier League match.
Southampton 0 Leicester 9 – 2019
Embed from Getty ImagesAnd so, to the team who hold both the record for the heaviest home and away defeat in the Premier League: Southampton. The first of those infamous nights happened in October 2019 at home against a high-flying Leicester side, who took the lead after left-back Ben Chilwell’s goal after 10 minutes. Saints’ own left-back Ryan Bertrand had a rather different night, seeing red for a tough tackle on Ayoze Perez. From there, Leicester smelt blood.
Goals from Youri Tielemans, a brace from Perez and a Jamie Vardy goal put the Foxes 5-0 up at the interval. Two goals in two minutes saw Perez get his hat-trick and Vardy get his second before James Maddison then made it eight with a magnificent free-kick, and Vardy’s late penalty secured his own hat-trick. Southampton endured the joint heaviest defeat in Premier League history, which they then equalled just less than two years later after a 9-0 loss away to Manchester United in February 2021.
