On the same points as their hosts prior to the game, Matthias Jaissle's Magpies had begun the season in reasonable fashion and, like Daniel Farke's squad, remained unbeaten in the league in 2026/27.
Elanga left out
The last time the teams met, the game ended in a seven-goal thriller, with Harvey Barnes winning it for Newcastle in the 102nd minute - the second-latest time a goal has ever been scored in the Premier League.
Another high-scoring game appeared unlikely when the teams were read out before the kick-off, with Farke opting for a 3-5-2 formation to counter an expected attack from a visiting side set up by Jaissle in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Destroyer-in-chief for Newcastle in some games this season, Anthony Elanga was out of the game with an injury, and the lack of pace up front as a result for the visitors was evident right from the kick-off.
Leeds, buoyed by a partisan home crowd, took the game straight to their opponents, and already had six attempts at goal in the opening half hour, compared to none from Newcastle.
Two goals in two minutes for Leeds
With Nico Gonzalez also having to be replaced early on, it was the most inauspicious of starts from the Magpies.
Once Lewis Miley deflected a shot into his own net on 32, and this was followed two minutes later by a header from Jayden Bogle, the writing appeared to be on the wall.
However, the last time Leeds had scored first but then lost the game was against Newcastle in that January fixture - the same game, in fact, that the Magpies last went behind in a match but came back to win.
The visitors were working overtime in a defensive sense, with Lewis Hall winning three of the four tackles made in the match, as well as nine of his 15 one-on-ones attempted.
Indeed, Newcastle had five players who attempted at least 10 duels during the game, with all of Hall, Sven Botman and Amar Dedic also winning possession back on four occasions each.
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Jaissle wasn't at all happy
Whilst not chaotic as such, the Magpies weren't cohesive as a unit, and that much was evident in the number of times they gave the ball away.
For example, Jacob Murphy lost the ball 14 times, and five of his colleagues did so on at least 10 separate occasions.
Jaissle was beside himself in the dugout, and with good reason.
Farke, meanwhile, was far less animated, and once Leeds claimed a third goal before the break - Dominic Calvert-Lewin finding the net for his eighth Premier League goal in 18 appearances against Newcastle - he knew that it was game over.
Calvert-Lewin and Bogle continued to torment the visitors, with the latter ending the game with superb attacking figures. Five touches in the opposition box, including three shots at goal, all of which were on target, was a decent night's work.
Lewis Hall was a shining light for Newcastle
His output was complemented by Calvert-Lewin's own showing as the centre-forward managed to get two of his four shots on target, and his eight touches in the box were the most of any player from either side.
If there was one bright spot for Jaissle, it came via the distribution of Hall, both in an attacking and defensive sense.
Across the 90+ minutes, he misplaced just one pass, completing 49 of 50 attempted, to give him an astonishing pass completion rate of 98% - the best on show.
It still wasn't enough to stem the tide of a relentless attack from the hosts, however.
Before an hour was on the clock, they'd already attempted a dozen efforts at goal, and with their 13th, in the 59th minute, Okafor curled home goal number four.
Consolation goal at the death
With the game already gone, Newcastle began to play with a little more freedom, and a handful of unanswered shots showed how much the hosts had taken their foot off the gas as they eased into the latter stages of the match.
Indeed, after conceding a fourth, the visitors then went on to have a collective 69% possession, but the real shame for their travelling supporters is that such excellence with the ball wasn't in evidence from earlier in the match.
Bazoumana Toure's 90th-minute consolation was all that Newcastle had to take back to Tyneside, but they deserved little more in truth.
Even having scored in all four of their league games so far this season will be of little consequence to Jaissle and his staff when reviewing the outcome of the game.
Jason Pettigrove has been the features writer for Flashscore since 2025, utilising Opta data to form the basis of his articles. He has previously worked for high profile football clubs, news and media outlets, both in print and digital, and can usually be found watching FC Barcelona when time permits. You can read more of his pieces here.
