Eddie Howe points finger at Liverpool after Newcastle's record-breaking 8-0 win
Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe has opened up on his side's difficult start to the Premier League season - insisting last month's last-gasp defeat to Liverpool "really hurt us".
Liverpool travelled to St James' Park for the third game of the Premier League season, just weeks after the Magpies had thrashed Aston Villa 5-1.
However, despite playing with 10 men for most of the afternoon after Virgil van Dijk was sent off in the first half, Darwin Nunez fired two late goals to snatch a memorable smash-and-grab 2-1 victory for the Reds.
Since then, Newcastle have struggled to match their performance levels of last season and until Sunday afternoon had won just one of their following three games in all competitions as they suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Brighton & Hove Albion and a draw at AC Milan in the Champions League.
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On Sunday, though, Newcastle sealed a record-breaking 8-0 victory against newly-promoted Sheffield United, which Howe insisted was an emphatic response from his players after failing to initially recover from their gut-wrenching defeat to Liverpool on August 27.
"I always believed," responded Howe when asked if he could sense an emphatic win on the horizon for his side. "I think the start of the season we had was very difficult. Against Aston Villa, first day, we were excellent; big win.
"You'd love to think we can kick on from there, then of course we had Manchester City. The Liverpool game really hurt us, which I think in part played into the Brighton performance - which was disappointing.
"But what a response from the players in the
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