Alan Shearer has named two Newcastle men in his Team of the Week.
The first is Allan Saint-Maximin – the flying French winger was a menace throughout and terrified the life out of West Ham’s defence.
He was direct and skillful but also played quite a few intelligent passes to his teammates.
However, he should have scored at least one goal.
The 22-year-old was one-on-one with Roberto twice but saw his efforts denied, and then he saw a much more instinctive curler from the edge of the area also saved but what Saint-Maximin does is excite fans and terrify defences.
If he could start to add some end product, then he could be one of the best wingers in the league.
I can’t think of a player we have had in recent years who as quick as the Frenchman – apart from Miguel Almiron!
The other man to be named in the Team of the Week was not one of our players, but it was Steve Bruce.
This was Bruce’s best performance as our manager since he took over – we were scintillating to watch on the counter-attack and could have had five goals by half-time.
Was this Steve Bruce's best performance as Newcastle manager?
Yes
No
Bruce has deservedly received a lot of stick for some performances this season, but we were brilliant, and he got his selection spot on.
The only thing that ruined it for me was when he mentioned Rafa in his post-match interview.
Why? There was no need.
I was in the away end on Saturday, and it was fantastic – the challenge now is to build on this performance and beat Bournemouth at St James’ Park next week.