IT is one thing trying to beat Burnley and Bournemouth, it is quite another travelling to Old Trafford to take on an in-form Manchester United. If they didn’t know before the weekend, Newcastle’s players will now be in no doubt that the upper reaches of the Premier League represent a different footballing world.

Prior to Saturday, Newcastle’s only experience of England’s ‘big six’ had come at St James’ Park. They performed creditably against Tottenham on the opening weekend of the season before slipping to a 2-0 defeat. They did even better when Liverpool visited Tyneside, with Joselu’s somewhat fortuitous first-half goal securing a 1-1 draw.

Saturday, though, was the first time they had been asked to travel to the backyard of one of the title contenders. It is hardly a coincidence that it resulted in their heaviest defeat of the season.

“This was a tough game for us because it was the first time we’ve really gone to one of the big four teams away from home this season,” said goalkeeper Rob Elliot, who barely put a foot wrong, but who still found himself picking the ball out of the net on four separate occasions. “It’s another new experience for this young squad.

“We’re disappointed because the way we started showed what we could do, but once their quality and pace shone through, it was tough for us. I definitely think the work-rate and commitment was there, they just had a little bit too much quality.

“We made an excellent start for the first 30 minutes or so, but then they got the first goal and that swung the momentum to them. During the second half, their quality really shone through, so it was a bit disappointing.”

In previous seasons, Newcastle’s tactical approach at Old Trafford has tended to be a defensive one. It hasn’t really worked – when the Magpies won 1-0 thanks to Yohan Cabaye’s goal in 2015, their success was as much down to Manchester United’s ineptitude under Louis van Gaal as anything to do with their own performance – but a succession of managers have been afraid to fight fire with fire when they have walked out in front of the Stretford End.

Benitez tried something different, setting his side up in a 4-4-2 formation, instructing his full-backs to press high up the field and affording his midfielders a license to flood the final third in support of a counter-attack.

It worked for the opening half-hour, with Newcastle taking the lead through Dwight Gayle and carving out a number of other first-half chances, but the game always felt like it was much too open for the visitors to contain their opponents’ attacking threats.

Sure enough, Manchester United turned things around with two goals in the final eight minutes of the first half, and added another two as they eased through the gears after the break.

“We've played 4-4-2 at Old Trafford, so we wanted to get on the front foot and control things as best we could, getting after them,” said Elliot. “If you come here and don’t look to win the game, then you’re just waiting to get beat. But on the flipside, they do have immense quality and they can take half-chances, or with the quality they have, really put your box under pressure.

“Once we went 2-1 down it was a game that was in the balance, but then they got the goal on the break and the game kind of died out from there.

“The effort was there, this was a big learning curve for us, and we have to go to a couple of big grounds in the next few weeks (Newcastle play at Chelsea and Arsenal before Christmas). We’ve shown we can take it to these teams, and hopefully we'll be able to see it through next time.”

Newcastle remain in 11th position, five points clear of the bottom three, but some of the wilder predictions that accompanied their strong start to the season are being reassessed.

Survival was always the main ambition, and it remains the overriding priority. There were always going to be sticky spells following last season’s promotion, but with December’s fixture list looking especially difficult, it will be surely be crucial that Newcastle take at least three points from their next two matches against Watford and West Brom.

“We’re not going to have to play Man United away every week thankfully,” said Elliot. “We've got Watford at home next week and hopefully we can take our good moments into the game and know we won't get punished like we were at times here.

“The manager always keeps a consistent message. He keeps reiterating how we're in a completely different league and level now to the Championship of last season.

"We still maintain that survival is first and foremost, then we can hopefully build as a team. We're still young as a team and there will be games when things don't go to plan.”