NEWCASTLE UNITED boss Eddie Howe refused to be drawn on whether his side were in the Premier League title race after their 3-0 win at Leicester.

The Magpies moved up to second in the table after a sixth successive win, which came thanks to a stunning first half-hour at the King Power Stadium.

Chris Wood’s penalty and a sublime Miguel Almiron strike put them 2-0 up after only seven minutes, with Joelinton adding a third in the 32nd minute.

It has been a brilliant start to the campaign for the Magpies and the Newcastle fans, who have been starved of success over the years, are understandably beginning to dream of ending their long wait for silverware. But Howe is not prepared to join in.

“My attitude won’t change to that,” he said. “I have no problems with the supporters dreaming and talking and speculating about what we can achieve and no doubt the media will, I can’t control that.

“The only think we need to be mindful of internally is just focus on what we can control and our own thoughts and actions and how we train and how we prepare. And not look too far ahead and not listen to too much news and media and just focus on our training and make sure we focus on it game by game.

“This is the toughest league in the world for a reason and our opposition no doubt will be watching us and preparing for us, so we have to be ready.”

On the performance, Howe added: “I’d say the performance was up there when you consider the opposition and the game and the break and everything that has gone into to preparing (for) this game.

“To start in the manner we did was hugely important. Credit to the players for how they have attacked their game.

“We scored some very good goals and the general mentality of the group was very, very good after the break.

“Today was a big test for us and (I’m) delighted (with) how the players started.”

Leicester, whose defending was a throwback to their dismal start to the season, were without James Maddison and boss Brendan Rodgers says his knee injury has worsened since his return from the World Cup.

Maddison was managing the issue in Qatar, where he did not feature for England, but Rodgers says the playmaker is not close to a return.

He explained: “Sadly he is not near to playing yet he was out to the grass this morning, but he was still feeling pain in his knee.

“I’ll speak to the medical team in the morning and see what the timeline on it might be.

“It’s a different part of a knee, he has had it around the back of the knee, now he is feeling it around the front. I need to listen to experts and the medical people on this and take it from there.

“This has come indirectly from maybe having issues while he was away, he is just feeling something on the front of his knee that the medics are just trying to get to the bottom of.”

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