Anthony Elanga will face Nottingham Forest for the first time as a Newcastle United player on Sunday.
Newcastle United paid over £50million to sign Elanga from Forest after he produced a stunning 11 Premier League assists last season.
Despite a tough start to life at Newcastle, Elanga is coming off his best performance yet for his new side.
Indeed, the Sweden international was excellent during Newcastle’s 4-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
The 23-year-old was involved in the first two goals in Brussels and, subsequently, Elanga was praised for his performance for Newcastle against USG.
Sunday will be a big game for him. Not only does he need to build on his showing in the Belgian capital, he’s also coming up against his former teammates.
Ahead of the game, the former Manchester United youngster was asked about it.
- Who is Anthony Elanga? Newcastle United’s brand new £55m winger
Anthony Elanga still speaks to Nottingham Forest players
Naturally, Elanga was quizzed about the prospect of facing his former club on Sunday. In total, he made 82 appearances for them, scoring 11 goals and registering 21 assists.
He revealed that he still speaks to his former teammates on a daily basis but, when the game starts, those friendships will be on hold.
Despite Forest’s struggles under new manager Ange Postecoglou, Elanga is still predicting a very tough game.
“I still speak to them every day because they’re still my mates,” he said (via The Independent).
“But when it comes to the game, then I’ll just lock into that and focus on my team.
“[I have] 100 per cent great memories from there. They’ve got a new manager now and it’s not going to be easy. But I believe in this team and hopefully we can keep that going.”
Whether Eddie Howe will be asking Anthony Elanga about Nottingham Forest
During Friday’s pre-match press conference, Eddie Howe was asked whether he’ll be tapping into Elanga’s knowledge of the Forest team.
Though the Newcastle United manager admitted he has previously deployed such a tactic when talking to his players about their former clubs, he said that the fact that Forest had changed manager since Elanga left rendered it somewhat pointless.
“I think with a new manager there now, I think it becomes – I don’t want to say redundant – but I’ll just let Anthony play and we’ll do the analysis,” he said.
“I think leave him free. I have done that historically, I’ve always asked players about different situations because you can glean information that might be able to help you.
“But, yeah, he’s got a big enough job to do, to focus on his own game.”
Elanga will need to hold off competition from Jacob Murphy for a starting berth, considering Howe’s rotational policy this season.
Receive a digest of our best Newcastle content each week direct to your mailbox
