Southampton stand after their dominant win against Newcastle | at the top of Premier League football

This week Ralph Hasenhüttl said he likes to be under the radar, but that is getting harder now that Southampton has reached the top of the Premier League for the first time since 1988 and rose to the top of the English top division.

Che Adams opened the scoring when they pushed Newcastle aside to extend their unbeaten run to six games. Southampton, who worked in the relegation zone around this time last year, overtook and outperformed Newcastle.

On the contact line, Hasenhüttl choreographed another good performance in Southampton and delighted his charged players from the first to the last kick. By contrast, Newcastle were decidedly flat and the pressure finally showed when Stuart Armstrong scored the points eight minutes from time.

Every Southampton outfield player attended the festivities, and goalkeeper Alex McCarthy had so little to do until he made an excellent late save from substitute Joelinton that he might as well have joined the group.

For Southampton, the big question was how, or maybe even if, they would get by without Danny Ings, their talisman, which will be missing about six weeks after minor knee surgery on Thursday.

The simple answer was correct: Adams rattled seven minutes, seconds after forcing the sprawling Karl Darlow into a clever parade. Darlow pushed Adams off for the first time, but was overwhelmed by the striker’s first volley shortly afterwards.

Adams emphatically finished Theo Walcott’s crisp cross, but it was the kind of goal that Steve Bruce pulled his hair out on. Instead of clarifying Newcastle’s borders, Miguel Almirón decided to spin out of trouble. Kyle Walker-Peters, guilty of possession on the edge of the 18-yard field, put pressure on the Newcastle midfielder and Walcott grabbed the ball to feed Adams.

Ings may have been their main source of goal for the last two seasons, but this team in Southampton has more substance under the surface. They made their way through a one-sided first half, with Walcott, who replaced Ings in attack, nearly doubling Southampton’s lead three minutes before break. Moussa Djenepo’s skillful shot eliminated Fabian Schär to find Walcott penetrating Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascelles before attempting to deflect a shot into the far corner. Just before the break, Adams, who breathed Schär down his neck in the penalty area, was punished for a foul that let Newcastle off the hook.

A few seconds after kick-off, a few fireworks shot up into the sky beyond the Northam End, which was usually a tough travel contingent. Here Newcastle played in carbonated yellow, as the kit makers put it, but besides seeing Allan Saint-Maximin come to life every now and then, Bruce Page went out of his way to give Southampton plenty to think about. Newcastle were overrun in midfield, and Jeff Hendrick and Sean Longstaff were inundated with the ferocity of Oriol Romeu and the diehard Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse, who made some timely interventions.

It came into play after Jack Stephens, who played as left-back in the absence of the injured Ryan Bertrand, played a loose pass that gave Callum Wilson the rare opportunity to shoot on goal and later grabbed the ball from a marauding Jacob Murphy . Romeu crossed the mark when he grossly spotted an accelerating Saint-Maximin halfway through just as he was about to turn on the afterburners. Newcastle’s only sight of the goal in an overwhelming first half came when Longstaff headed straight for McCarthy after a cross from Jamal Lewis.

Sometimes Southampton played with Newcastle and when a simple pass for Saint-Maximin was overcooked a frustrated Bruce scratched his ears and put his hands over his face.

Southampton was looking for an elusive second goal but Darlow made an excellent save from Romeu, bringing his fingertips to a stake driver from the edge of the box. Moments earlier, Lascelles cleared the line after Jan Bednarek kicked the ball into the goal after center-back Jannik Vestergaard threw a corner in his way.

“Leave it there, let them run,” said Hasenhüttl when Bednarek took possession in the heart of the defense. For much of the night Newcastle chased shadows.