EDDIE HOWE hopes Newcastle United’s 6-1 thrashing of Tottenham will help convince his players they belong amongst the Premier League elite.

The Magpies took a major step towards securing Champions League qualification as they blew Spurs away in a remarkable opening spell that saw them score five unanswered goals in the space of 21 minutes at a raucous St James’ Park.

Jacob Murphy and Alexander Isak scored two goals apiece before the break, with Joelinton also finding the back of the net, and while Harry Kane pulled a goal back for Spurs at the start of the second half, Callum Wilson added a sixth goal midway through the first half as Newcastle claimed their biggest win of the season.

The victory has lifted the Magpies above Manchester United into third place in the Premier League table, and leaves them six points clear of Tottenham, with a game in hand on yesterday’s vanquished opposition.

“I’d encourage the players to think that we belong here,” said Howe. “We need that confidence. If you have doubts when you play these kind of games, then that’s not a healthy place to be.

“We want the players to go into the games believing that we are the superior team. Now, to believe that takes very good preparation and then you also need the players’ inner belief to be very high. Hopefully, with the more wins like this we can get, the more that inner belief is strengthened.”

Newcastle had been criticised for their slow start as they were beaten at Aston Villa in their previous outing, but things could hardly have been more different in the opening quarter of yesterday’s game.

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The Magpies looked like scoring every time they broke towards the Tottenham box, with Murphy, Joelinton and Joe Willock all breaking effectively in support of Isak.

Howe had spoken of the need to get on the front foot from the off prior to kick-off, but even he was taken aback by the quality of his side’s early attacking play.

“I don’t think you ever visualise a game going that way,” he said. “You hope you can really impose your game plan on your opponents’ and you hope your players can impose themselves on the opposition. But you never know how the game is going to go.

“The unpredictable nature of the game is one of the beauties of football, but what really pleased me is that we kept our high standards throughout the game.

"Although we didn’t score as frequently after that period, we never lost our rhythm.

“That’s how I want us to be in terms of intensity. We can tick that one off. In terms of our willingness to win the ball, and our desire to score, it was very good. The linking of play and movement of the team was at the very highest level.”

Report & ratings - Page 46