It wasn’t a classic at St James’ Park yesterday, but it was a win that made it 10 points from a possible 12 in our last four league games since the international break.
Eddie Howe has already given his thoughts on the game, our patchy performance and that nervous end as Burnley made it 2-1 with 90 seconds to play and came close to scoring a last-gasp equaliser.
But he’s also discussed his star player on the day and Yoane Wissa’s return from a knee injury below…
Howe picks out top performer
After a rough start to the season in the Premier League, Howe has heaped praise on Anthony Gordon after the winger made it two goals in a week with another emphatic spot kick.
The boss believed Gordon was our “best player” against Burnley, hailing his direct wing play, pace and quality in possession, with our No.10 not only scoring, but striking the woodwork twice and playing that killer pass into Anthony Elanga that created Burnley’s red card.
“I thought he was our best player today. I thought he brought the threat for us, direct running, showed his pace, showed his technical quality.
“I’m very, very pleased with him today and he’s had an important spell.”
Wissa’s challenge ahead
96 days after first signing for us, Yoane Wissa finally took to the St James’ Park pitch as one of our own, and we as met with a rapturous response from the crowd.
Wissa’s debut couldn’t have come at a better time as we go into a huge week with games against Bayer Leverkusen and Sunderland coming up.
However, Howe insists he still has a “work to do” to reach his top levels and will be managed carefully over the coming weeks, with the challenge now to build his fitness carefully in games while the busy schedule limits our training time.
“He’s got a lot more work to do to get to the very best level that he can. We hope to keep him available by managing correctly.
“It’s difficult with the spell of games that we have to sort of train him and build his fitness with all the game schedule.
“So it’s going to be a really delicate balance for us, but hopefully we can find a solution to it.”
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