A brilliant few days continued for Newcastle United in excellent fashion on Saturday.
Only a few days after a statement performance knocked Chelsea out of the Carabao Cup and took Newcastle into the quarter-finals of that competition, Eddie Howe’s side recorded their biggest win of the Premier League season to date.
Indeed, they defeated Arsenal 1-0 thanks to Alexander Isak’s first-half goal, brought about by a fantastic cross from Anthony Gordon.
It was another huge result at St James’ Park, which has so often proven to be a fortress for Newcastle in the Howe era. Newcastle did have to do a lot of defending after taking the lead but goalkeeper Nick Pope was not truly tested all that often, such was the compactness of the unit.
Alan Shearer was particularly impressed by two players.
Alan Shearer blown away by two Newcastle players during win over Arsenal
The Newcastle United legend was full of praise for full-back pair Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall.
Speaking as a pundit for the Premier League’s official coverage, Shearer said of the result: “They needed it and they deserved it.
“That set the standard. When they had to dig deep, they did. The two full-backs, Livramento and Lewis Hall, were absolutely outstanding and nullified any threat from Arsenal’s two wingers. It was a great all-round team performance, and a great goal to win the game.”
Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall are building something special at Newcastle
In the summer of 2023, it might have seemed strange that Newcastle moved for two young full-backs, rather than strengthening perhaps more pressing areas of the squad.
Still, after a bedding in period for Hall, things appear to be paying off.
Livramento hit the ground running of course but, as a pair, they look to be proving they can be relied upon in both the immediate term and the long-term too.
Howe was full of praise for their performance against Chelsea last weekend too, even despite the defeat at Stamford Bridge.
Newcastle have two young and English full-backs already doing the business at the elite level against some of the best teams in Europe.
That is seriously exciting.
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