Shearer was ‘surprised’ Newcastle duo didn’t start v Everton before Howe proved him wrong

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There is no doubt that Alan Shearer would have been one of the happiest men in the world on Tuesday night when Newcastle United beat Everton.

Eddie Howe’s side recorded a much-needed and deserved 3-1 win over Frank Lampard’s men, as it seems as though the Newcastle boss proved the club legend wrong.

Before the game, Shearer expressed his ‘surprise’ and even ‘disappointment’ at Dan Burn, and especially Bruno Guimaraes, not starting the game, as he told Premier League Productions (08/02/22 at 7:10 pm).

Whilst there was a break inbetween, Howe decided, for large parts of his XI, to stick to the team that won at Leeds last time out.

That meant one of the club’s standout purchases during the January transfer window, Guimaraes, starting from the bench.

Whilst Burn didn’t come on for his debut at all, and he will have to wait a little longer for that, Guimaraes didn’t come on for a brief period, and even then, he impressed during those few minutes.

In the end, Howe’s call to start a number of his new boys from the bench paid off and proved why Shearer shouldn’t have been ‘surprised’ at all.

Pre-match comments on the XI: “I am not quite sure of the situation at Newcastle, in terms of Burn and Guimaraes in midfield, who have been playing, so that’s a bit of a surprise to me,” said Shearer.

“The feeling around Newcastle was that he (Guimaraes) was the marquee signing. He turned other bigger clubs down, in his words, to come to Newcastle to be part of their project.

“Albeit, I understand how Eddie (Howe) is saying, in terms of they won their last game, and their midfield did reasonably well in that game.

“I am slightly surprised and disappointed that he’s not in the XI.”

For once this season, Newcastle now have competition within their team and it provides Howe with a number of big choices to make.

On Sunday, they face off against Aston Villa, so that’s Matt Targett unable to play, but will the versatile Burn come into play?

Will he even hand Guimaraes a start? Either way, this is now a team with back-to-back wins and ready to add a third in front of their now-confident Toony Army supporters at the weekend.