Newcastle 4-3 Nottingham Forest as Yasir Al-Rumayyan watches on.

Swatted aside with alarming ease at Manchester City, blow Nottingham Forest away with four goals in an 11-minute blitz, retreat uneasily, and eventually clutch on for dear life in stoppage time. Arne Slot must have no idea what to anticipate when he prepares his Liverpool team to meet Newcastle on Wednesday and again at Wembley next month. They can beat anyone, including the Premier League leaders, if they play like they did on Sunday at St James’ Park. Newcastle is now only four places behind them, with Forest behind by two.

But oh, did they make hard work of what appeared to be a mauling at halftime, when they led 4-1. More goals came in the second half, but both were from Forest, who threatened the most unlikely of comebacks. Still, it’s a victory, and it was a fitting response to Manchester City’s setback and Forest’s early lead. Considering Nuno Espirito Santo’s side had only lost once and won 13 of the 19 Premier League games in which they had scored first, those inside St James’ Park must have feared the worst when Callum Hudson-Odoi took advantage of a Jacob Murphy error and fired the visitors ahead from distance after only six minutes. However, by the time the inexperienced visitors touched the ball in Newcastle’s box for the first time after 45 minutes, they were 4-1 down.

The opening goal was scored by the great Lewis Miley, who was making his Premier League debut for the season, before Murphy made amends and put the Magpies ahead two minutes later. Alexander Isak then scored his 49th Newcastle penalty goal, followed by his 50th just a minute and 51 seconds later. Forest’s noisy fans were quiet early on, only to be heard again shortly after the half when they announced that they were “going to win 5-4”. Nikola Milenkovic kept those faint hopes alive, and replacement Ryan Yates added another in the final minute, but Newcastle held on, with chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan watching from the stands.

A win was critical following Saturday’s slip-ups by Bournemouth, Aston Villa, and Fulham, and it will at least alleviate any concerns that United would turn their attention away from the Premier League before next month’s trip to Wembley Stadium. Joelinton will be back in the final, but Miley will be difficult to leave out if he continues to play as he did on Sunday. The industrious teenager was superb, and Joe Willock alongside him had his greatest 45 minutes of the season in the first half, much-needed after his Manchester City struggle. Willock was the beneficiary of Sandro Tonali’s muscle tightness which meant the Italian was only fit enough to be used from the bench in the final stages. This time last year, Lewis Hall was a Newcastle substitute. Now, surely only Isak has the beating of him in the running for Player of the Season. The left-back was immense in the first half, creating Newcastle’s first two goals and winning the penalty.