Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimaraes lashed out at his team-mates for failing to “compete” against Sunderland, while Eddie Howe issued an apology to fans for his team’s 1-0 derby defeat on Sunday. The Magpies have now failed to beat the Black Cats in their last 10 English top-flight meetings, and have dropped into the bottom half of the table.
After a difficult start to their 2025-26 campaign, Newcastle were slowly gaining some momentum as they were unbeaten in their last three Premier League outings, which included a win over Manchester City last month. The Magpies were looking to continue that upturn in form by beating their local rivals this weekend, but they produced a terrible performance. Nick Woltemade’s own goal early in the second half sealed the three points for Sunderland and piled pressure on Howe in the Newcastle dugout.
As the leader of the pack, Guimaraes was left fuming with the performance of the entire team as he told reporters after the match: “I’m very angry, I’m so embarrassed and I’m so frustrated. There was no crossing, no passing and no shooting. No nothing. It was a mess, in my opinion. We know we have a better team than them (Sunderland) but we didn’t play like the better team. It was a mess. The consistency isn’t there, the mentality isn’t there. We didn’t compete. The fans expect and deserve better. We accepted the way they play with the long balls. You need to compete in a derby and we didn’t.”
Guimaraes added: “Disappointed, frustrated, lack of energy, don’t put the things that we are able to do, cross the ball, pass the ball. We were like a mess in my point of view. Disappointed, angry. This one is a tough one to accept. I’ve played many, many derbies in my career. It’s not easy to get a defeat, but today I think we disappointed the fans. We disappointed the fans in general because they were expecting much more. We were as well. But we didn’t perform like the team that should come here with the right mentality. So yeah, we understand the fans. Now we have just, for me, one way to go. That is beating everyone, improving our form, qualifying the club for the semi-final of the Carabao Cup, qualifying for the Champions League and improving our level in the Premier League as well.”
A frustrated Howe came out to issue an apology to the fans as he told reporters: “That will sting for a long time. We know our performance was off what we needed to be. Not defensively, we defended well. It was a game of few chances. Unfortunately, the one big moment goes against us. But we weren’t good enough to open them up. I am disappointed for the supporters and sorry for our performance, for a lack of goalmouth action and clinical attacking. It certainly wasn’t a lack of effort. But the first 60 minutes, I don’t think we posed a threat at all. It wasn’t the finest day for any of our front players. The openings were there, with a better decision or pass. But the quality was not there in that phase of the game.”
Howe will hope that his players bounce back from the Sunderland loss as early as possible amid a hectic schedule in December. They will now shift focus to their title defence campaign in the Carabao Cup as they next face Fulham at home in a quarter-final clash.
Following the cup tie, the Magpies are scheduled to face Chelsea, Manchester United and Burnley in a span of 10 days in the Premier League.
