Fulham 3-1 Newcastle: Raul Jimenez, Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson secure all three points for the hosts as Magpies suffer first defeat of the season

Finally, after four matches unbeaten and with a chance to go top of the Premier League, Newcastle got the result some of their performances have perhaps deserved – a defeat.

They have mugged a couple of opponents already this season and came here knowing that victory would fire them to the summit. This time, the bandits were the victims. Victims of a rampant Fulham and victims of their own mistakes. Each of Fulham’s three goals came with a visiting assist.

Joelinton and Fabian Schar were culpable for the first, Nick Pope for the second and Bruno Guimaraes for Fulham’s clincher in stoppage-time. Individual errors, yes, but there was also a collective malaise, especially in the first half when Newcastle had no intensity, identity or ideas. Fulham, by contrast, came out all guns blazing, before Newcastle borrowed the shooters and blew their own feet off.

‘If you give opponents help away from home it becomes doubly difficult, because it gets the crowd in the game,’ said Eddie Howe. 

‘Today was the worst we’ve played this season, especially first half. The other games have not been perfect but we’ve been really solid and resilient. I anticipated a strong performance today, but it was not there.’

Emile Smith Rowe (middle) doubled their lead in the 22nd minute of the match 

Harvey Barnes pulled one back for the Magpies in the opening stages of the second half

It was better in the second half, when remarkably Newcastle might have mined another result from the darkness. Trailing by two at the break – a deficit that flattered the visitors – Harvey Barnes scored within 30 seconds of the restart and twice they missed one-on-ones to go level. Had they got to 2-2, you would have fancied Newcastle to don their masks and nick all three points.

Alas, justice was served and not swerved and, with a blunder that captured his miserable afternoon, captain Guimaraes played a pass straight to Reiss Nelson, who accepted the invitation to score from 12 yards.

‘It was a well-deserved three points,’ said Marco Silva, whose side conceded in stoppage-time during last weekend’s 1-1 draw at home to West Ham. ‘We wanted to show a reaction, because we were not fortunate last week. But what a reaction. The first half was brilliant, our strongest performance of the season. We were dominant and we should have scored more than twice.’

Silva was right, and his mood would have been very different had that first-half display of superior energy and cunning not been rewarded with a win.

They led on five minutes. For Newcastle, it was a terribly soft goal to concede. Ordinarily, you might say Raul Jimenez lost his marker. Except, Schar did not seem particularly interested in doing much marking. 

Adama Traore crossed from the right, Jimenez received with his back to goal and was allowed to turn before firing low beyond Pope. Schar, meanwhile, watched it all unfold. In the moments before Traore’s delivery, Joelinton had gifted Fulham the ball. It set the tone.

Emile Smith-Rowe cracked the crossbar after Guimaraes failed to track his run, but he soon had a goal when doubling the lead on 22 minutes. Again, Newcastle’s midfield provided little resistance to home runners and Smith-Rowe burst into the area before poking on goal. 

It looked like a routine save for Pope, who stooped to gather. He was, however, left to gather his thoughts after the ball inexplicably slipped through his palm and rolled over the line at a snail’s pace. Not that Newcastle were moving much quicker elsewhere on the pitch and Jimenez and the brilliant Joachim Andersen both shot over before the interval when in good positions.

Despite Barnes’ goal, the Magpies were unable to mount a comeback in the second half

Reiss Nelson wrapped up the win in added time after punishing a Newcastle mistake

Eddie Howe’s side suffered their first defeat of the season on a disappointing visit to Fulham

Howe responded with a double change and one of those introduced, Jacob Murphy, immediately sprung Barnes clear and he tucked into the bottom corner. Anthony Gordon then twisted free but shot straight at Bernd Leno, before the home goalkeeper impersonated the visitors when his short goal-kick was intercepted by Schar in the 72nd minute. The centre-back was clear on goal with just Leno to beat but placed the wrong side of the post.

‘That was a key moment in the game,’ said Howe. ‘It could have been different.’

It could have been, but maybe this was the reality check they needed. Too many of Howe’s players – Guimaraes, in particular – look short of fitness. Striker Alexander Isak is too isolated and has one goal from six appearances. Gordon, meanwhile, does not look settled after the club explored selling him to Liverpool in the summer.

It is credit to their resilience, as Howe said, that results have been extracted so far this season. But on the day they could have gone top, the manager was left scraping the bottom of a barrel for positives.