Newcastle United left the London Stadium with a point, battling back from behind against West Ham United, a high-flying side who are in the hunt for Champions League qualification.
The scoring was opened by Craig Dawson for the hosts who converted from a set piece. He was allowed to run past all the Newcastle defenders before nodding home emphatically unmarked.
Will Dan Burn lead Newcastle to Premier League safety?Yes
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It was a quick response from Eddie Howe’s side who equalised before the break via Joe Willock. The former Arsenal man flicked the ball across goal from a tight angle to beat the ‘keeper, with the ball just creeping over the line via the post.
Dan Burn was singled out for praise by Rio Ferdinand in the BT Sport studio, with the former defender having this to say: “There’s a composure now when you’re under a bit of pressure. He looked very calm, very assured in what he’s doing. There’s no airs or graces about him, there’s no frills. He goes in there and does a job.
“When he came here he spoke about being delighted to go back to his normal position which is centre back after he’d been playing left back at Brighton… He’s from the terraces anyway, he’s a Newcastle local lad, but he’s playing here with an assuredness that they’ve needed. Newcastle, before he come here, would have folded. They didn’t have that leader type who can organise, and he’s been an astute signing.”
It came as a surprise to some to see Newcastle sign Burn after the original links to Diego Carlos and Sven Botman, but he has certainly justified the faith put in him by Howe so far.
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A defender with the amount of honours that Ferdinand has, you’d imagine he knows a thing or two about defending, so the praise for Burn has the stamp of approval from a defender that won almost everything possible in the game.
The result helped Newcastle stretch their gap to the bottom three to five points, so Premier League survival is still in the hands of the Magpies who are looking more likely to beat the drop week by week.
In other news, Ryan Fraser praised