Newcastle United once again kicked off the Premier League season with a defeat at home to Tottenham.
A number of Newcastle supporters took to Twitter to comment on Christian Atsu’s performance during the Magpies’ opening day clash with Tottenham at St James’ Park, which saw Rafa Benitez’s side fall to a narrow victory.
The same two teams met on the opening day of last season, and on that occasion it was Mauricio Pochettino’s men who took the spoils with a 2-0 win that was marred by Jonjo Shelvey picking up a silly red card for stepping on Dele Alli.
Alli would play a key role in deciding the game this time around, too. The Englishman scored the game’s winner after just 18 minutes after Joselu had initially cancelled out Jan Vertonghen’s opener for the visitors.
It may have been a defeat for Benitez’s side, but there were some reasons for encouragement. It was quite a miserable summer for the Newcastle fans who were desperately craving a marquee signing, so the effort a lot of the players showed would have given them some small reason for optimism.
One of the best players on the pitch throughout the afternoon was Matt Ritchie. It was his assist that saw Newcastle equalise and he often looked like the Magpies’ main threat.
However, shortly after the hour-mark, Benitez decided to replace the Scotland international with Atsu. And after the game, a number of supporters took to social media to suggest that that was a mistake from the Spaniard.
Atsu has never quite managed to establish himself in the Newcastle side, and his performance on Saturday left a number of fans suggesting that he went missing during the contest and offered little when the side desperately needed him to take the game to Spurs in the same way Ritchie had.
Here is what some of the Newcastle fans made of Atsu’s display…
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