Alan Shearer believes Alexander Isak and Miguel Almiron made statements in Sunday’s win over Wolves, talking up the vital importance of taking all three points to keep our top four dream alive.
Isak had watched Callum Wilson start five of our last seven league games, while Almiron was benched for the first time all season yesterday, and Shearer believes they delivered the perfect reaction to Eddie Howe.
As a result, our former No 9 believes it was a great day on so many fronts for Newcastle, as players delivered at the perfect moment, Howe got his big calls bang on and the team got over the line to ‘stop the rot’, leapfrog Liverpool and close the gap on Spurs; who we’re now four points behind with two games in hand.
Shearer felt we ‘had to get back to winning ways’ after watching Tottenham maintain their spot in the Champions League places without playing well, feeling yesterday was a ‘significant’ moment in our season and a game we simply had to win.
Speaking to Premier League productions, here’s what big Al had to say:
“You have to stop the rot, when you look at what Tottenham have done in terms of league games despite not playing well, you’ve got to go out and get wins. With the forwards they possess, it’s going to be very difficult to challenge them and Liverpool for fourth position.
“If they’re going to do that, today was a significant game. They had to get back to winning ways today, they had to get three points. It doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t matter if they were lucky, it just had to be three points.
“They managed to do that. Also, when the manager makes decisions in terms of leaving players out and bringing players in, I think it’s really important to make a statement. The players have done that.
“He brought Isak in, he scored. He left Almiron out, they brought him off the bench and were looking for a reaction. He got that exact reaction.
“In terms of the result and what the manager has done, it’s been a really good day for Newcastle.”
