Well aware that a win would move them into third place in the Premier League Newcastle sought an early goal at St James’ Park and top scorer Alexander Isak almost delivered with a powerful header that grazed the crossbar.
The Magpies dominated the opening stages, and duly took the lead inside the opening quarter-hour through Jacob Murphy, who fired into the roof of the net from a near-impossible angle for his third goal in as many matches.
Despite struggling for momentum in the contest, Palace were suddenly given a lifeline when Nick Pope clattered into Chris Richards inside the area, leading to a penalty after a lengthy VAR review.
Eberechi Eze stepped up to take the spot-kick, but he spurned the chance to score his fourth goal in six appearances as Nick Pope saved comfortably.
Disaster struck again for the visitors as Marc Guehi- just as he did in the reverse fixture - scored an own goal, diverting Harvey Barnes’ cross into the Eagles’ net.
To cap off a commanding first period, Barnes slammed home his fourth goal in three games into the bottom corner before Fabian Schar made it 4-0 with a glancing header past Dean Henderson from Murphy’s free-kick.
Damage limitation was the order of the day for Palace in the second period, but they had no answer to the rampant Toon Army.
The Eagles shipped another in the 58th minute, allowing Isak plenty of space on the edge of the area to curl into the bottom corner.
Mercifully for Oliver Glasner’s men, that’s where the scoring stopped as Newcastle took the opportunity to rest some of their key players ahead of this weekend’s meeting with fellow European hopefuls Aston Villa.
The Magpies’ clinical display gave their still absent manager Eddie Howe plenty to cheer as it established a five-point buffer inside the top five.
Palace have now conceded five goals in each of their last two games, with this a sixth failure to win from their last seven away H2Hs.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jacob Murphy (Newcastle United)
Catch up on all the match stats with Flashscore by clicking here.