It’d be fair to say Newcastle United fans have had to wait to see the best of club-record signing Alexander Isak, though through no fault of his own.
The Sweden international scored on his debut against Liverpool and followed that up with a goal two games later against Bournemouth but then ran into injury problems.
Isak, however, now appears to be over them and is leading Eddie Howe’s side in their quest to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
The £60m striker came up trumps against Nottingham Forest on Friday, bagging a brace as the Magpies went one point off fourth-placed Tottenham with a game in hand.
Isak’s brilliant night against Forest
Newcastle had fallen behind due to an uncharacteristic mistake from Sven Botman in the first-half. The Dutchman under-hit a backpass to Nick Pope, allowing Emmanuel Dennis to swoop in and execute a deft chip past the England goalkeeper and the onrushing Kieran Trippier.
Still, Isak would respond with a fantastic goal of his own on the stoke of half-time before scoring a late penalty to ensure a dramatic win for the Magpies.
Praised by Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher after the game, Isak was also – unsurprisingly perhaps – hailed by his teammates.
Isak posted a photo of himself celebrating on Instagram in the wake of the win, captioned “Some feeling that last night! Big performance from the team and our fans!”
A number of teammates replied, with Joe Willock writing: “Wow Thierry [Henry] is that you?”
Easy to see what Willock means
Clearly, the comment is somewhat tongue-in-cheek but it’s easy to see what Willock is getting at.
The athleticism Isak showed to score his brilliant first was something Henry built his game on and the ice-cool nature with which he smashed how the late penalty was certainly reminiscent of the Arsenal legend.
While not to take it too literally, Willock was hardly wrong in his assessment of that particular performance.