Newcastle United inflicted Brentford's heaviest Premier League defeat with a 5-1 thrashing at St. James' Park on Saturday afternoon.
Bruno Guimarães scored his first two goals of the season and was accompanied on the score sheet by Jacob Murphy and Miguel Almirón. Ivan Toney had pulled one back from the penalty spot just after half-time but Ethan Pinnock's own goal in the 90th-minute put the final nail in the coffin on an embarrassing afternoon for the Bees.
Newcastle's win extends their unbeaten run to five matches and lifts them into fourth in the table, with Brighton & Hove Albion still to play this evening, while Brentford are now three matches without a win and drop to 12th for the time being.
Story of the match
Off the back of their fantastic 4-1 win against Fulham at Craven Cottage last weekend, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe opted with an unchanged line-up. Allan Saint-Maximin was named on the bench as the Frenchman returned to the squad for the first time since sustaining a hamstring injury against Wolves in August.
Thomas Frank made three changes to the Brentford side that drew 0-0 with Bournemouth and altered the formation from 4-3-3 to 3-5-2. Ethan Pinnock made his first appearance of the season in the absence of Pontus Jansson, stepping into a back three, with Aaron Hickey and Josh Dasilva returning to the line-up in favour of Mikkel Damsgaard and Vitaly Janelt.
It was the hosts that produced the first opportunity of the afternoon in the 5th minute when Miguel Almirón recieved the ball on the right touchline, cut inside before unleashing a curling effort that forced David Raya into a fine save in the 5th minute.
Moments later Brentford thought they had taken the lead when Bryan Mbeumo fired past Nick Pope from close range after great link-up play on the edge of the area, but it was deemed offside by VAR due to Ivan Toney's dummy in the build-up.
Following the disallowed goal the game became very open, with each team moving the ball well, Newcastle in particular as the hosts posed a huge threat to their guests on the counter.
In the 20th-minute Howe's side had calls for handball waived away by John Brooks but took the lead from the resulting corner. Almirón pulled it back for Kieran Trippier to produce a first-time cross towards the back post for Bruno Guimarães to stoop down and head the ball past Raya.
Newcastle smelt blood and continued to push on. Callum Wilson had a shot blocked by Ethan Pinnock in the area soon after before Jacob Murphy had his left-footed strike comfortably claim by Raya after Josh Dasilva slipped on the edge of the area.
The Bees had a half-chance through Baptiste which was saved by Pope but Newcastle doubled their lead just before the half-hour mark.
Under no pressure, Raya attempted a pass between the lines of Newcastle's press but it was easily intercepted by Callum Wilson who drove towards the goal and set Jacob Murphy up for an easy tap-in.
Brentford's first half performance will have had Thomas Frank pulling his hair out as the team looked disjointed, struggled to string successive passes together and failed to test their hosts' defence.
Brentford started the second half with their best spell of possession of the game and tested Pope for the first time. Mbeumo cut inside from the right and curled a left-footed strike towards the bottom corner which was saved by the England international.
In the aftermath of the parried shot, Brentford were awarded a penalty as Aaron Hickey headed a cross back into the area and it hit a flailing Dan Burn arm. Ivan Toney stepped up and put it to the left of Pope's goal, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way.
Their hope for a comeback didn't last long though, two minutes, in fact, as Hickey was dispossessed by Guimarães and the Brazilian drove forward with the ball before unleashing a low-driven strike from outside the area to reinstate the Magpies' two-goal lead in the 56th-minute.
Callum Wilson almost made it 4-1 in the 60th-minute when Trippier's quick free-kick set him up for a volley on the penalty spot, but his left-footed strike was flew wide of the post.
Newcastle continued to mount pressure onto their guests and created a number of half-chances but nothing to test Raya in Brentford's goal for a while.
In the 82nd-minute Newcastle truly put the game to bed as the Bees made another defensive error. Ethan Pinnock's pass sold Raya short and was easily intercepted by Almirón, all the Paraguayan had to do was to go around the despairing dive of Raya to fire into an empty net.
Just before the clock turned 90, the hosts lead was extended to five due to a breakdown in communication as Pinnock redirected Joelinton's unthreatening cross, which was set to be claimed by Raya, into his own net.
Player of the match - Bruno Guimarães
The Brazilian was a cut above the rest this afternoon and was the orchestrator in a fine Newcastle performance. The Brazilian opened the scoring with a brilliant header before killing Brentford's hopes minutes after Thomas Frank's side pulled one back with an even better strike from outside the area.
While he was unable to complete the match due to an injury, the fans acknowledged his performance as he was serenaded by the Newcastle faithful as he walked around the pitch.