OPINION
There is little questioning that the likes of Fabian Schar, Sean Longstaff and Miguel Almiron will be the ones stealing the headlines after Newcastle United’s impressive 2-0 win over Burnley – and deservedly so.
It was a confident performance from the Magpies against a side who looked a real danger less than a week ago against high flyers Tottenham and the aforementioned trio were perhaps the best outfield trio on the pitch, two scoring excellent goals and the other showing why he was Rafael Benitez’s top target in January.
However, there was one man who exuded confidence and was totally dominant throughout who will likely not get much of a mention in the papers – Martin Dubravka.
The goalkeeper kept a clean sheet but was actually not tested by shots all that often by the visitors at St James’ Park.
What he was tested with was a constant bombardment of crosses into his box and he passed the quite rudimentary examination with flying colours.
Not since Tim Krul in his prime – and arguably even further back to Shay Given – have the Newcastle faithful seen a goalkeeper so utterly confident when dealing with balls in the air and despite being a goalkeeper he dominated the Burnley attack by making definitive decisions when coming out to claim the cross.
After two errors against Tottenham and Wolves cost his side at least two points and maybe more, the critics were very much on his back but this performance has surely buried them for the foreseeable future.
It was Dubravka at his very best and Newcastle are extremely fortunate to have someone who never looks like getting beaten.