Christian Atsu scored for Newcastle United on Saturday.
Speaking to The Chronicle, Christian Atsu has paid tribute to the selfless nature of Newcastle United team-mate Aleksandar Mitrovic.
The 24-year-old scored his first goal for Newcastle at St James’s Park – and second overall – on Saturday in the 2-1 win over Cardiff City.
Mitrovic, who had four goals in his previous two games prior to facing City, set up the Chelsea loanee to open the scoring inside the first three minutes.
And Atsu has thanked his Serbian counterpart for being so unselfish when he could have perhaps taken the chance on himself.
He told The Chronicle: “I am happy to score at St James’ Park and it was great to get it so early. I was very pleased to see Mitro pass the ball to me then.
“Some strikers would like to take that chance themselves, but he was unselfish and passed it to me.
“I said thank you. Mitro is a good finisher and probably could have scored if he’d shot but he picked me out. I am grateful.”
Unselfish is certainly the key word in Atsu’s comments. Mitrovic was not guaranteed a goal, because he still had a bit to do, but most strikers would have definitely taken the chance on themselves rather than square it to an unmarked team-mate.
Plus, the 22-year-old is rivalling 11-goal Dwight Gayle for a regular place in the first XI, and scoring would have obviously endeared himself to the manager that bit more.
The moment summed up the team environment that Rafael Benitez has built on Tyneside, and it no surprise that Newcastle are top of the Championship as a result.
In fact, the Magpies are also eight points clear in the automatic places, and it certainly seems like they are heading back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
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