Newcastle picked up a morale-boosting win over Aston Villa in their opening game of the Premier League season.
Summer signing Sandro Tonali scored his first goal for the club and the 23-year-old produced an impeccable performance in the middle of the park.
Tonali was handed a start in place of Sean Longstaff who was a regular for Newcastle last season.
The 25-year-old was dropped to the bench but the midfielder believes that he will have his opportunities this season and there is plenty of football to be played.
Journalist George Caulkin has revealed that the midfielder was quite upbeat about playing plenty of football this season and he was unfazed about being dropped in the first game in order to make way for the summer signing.
“I had a brief chat with Sean after the match, not as an on the record interview, but just a chat as he walked through the mixed zone,” he said.
“He was very upbeat. He knows there’s a lot of football to be played and he knew that the little niggling injury that he had in pre-season – he picked it up in America, came back for one of those Sela Cup games – but I think he knew he was unlikely to start because of that.
“He was very sanguine. He said there’s going to be a lot of football played this season, he’ll get his games and was blown away by the performance of the team.”
Newcastle will be competing in the Champions League this season and Eddie Howe will have to rotate his quad in order to keep the players fresh.
The 25-year-old midfielder will certainly get ample opportunities to impress and hold down a starting spot.
It will be interesting to see if he can compete with Tonali and convince the manager that he is good enough to start ahead of the Italian.
The competition for places will only help both players improve and in turn, benefit the side.