Anthony Gordon is convinced Newcastle United can be “anything we want to be” this season after playing a key role in igniting their Champions League campaign.
The 24-year-old England international started the Magpies’ impressive 4-0 victory over Belgian champions Union Saint-Gilloise in Brussels on Wednesday evening as Eddie Howe’s new-look side finally rediscovered its swagger.
Goals had been in short supply for much of the season previously, dulling the effect of good performances, in particular the 3-2 home defeat by champions Liverpool with 10 men following Gordon’s dismissal.
Asked what the season could hold for his team, Gordon replied: “We can be anything we want to be this season. We can beat anyone in any game.
“I never go into a game thinking we’re going to lose. As long as we can keep that defensive structure, that creativity, we can beat anyone.
“You saw that in the Liverpool game. For the first 30 minutes before I got sent off, we dominated them and they’re the champions of England.”
Better than Gordon: Newcastle star is now one of the best in the world
Newcastle romped to a big win in the Champions League this week, with Anthony Gordon starring.
ByKelan Sarson
Newcastle had won just two of eight games in all competitions before they ran out at Lotto Park, and they did so knowing a failure to add to that tally after a 2-1 home defeat by Barcelona in their opening European fixture would significantly dent their qualification hopes.
However, they need not have worried as they turned in perhaps their most coherent display to date to brush aside a team that had won 3-1 at PSV Eindhoven last month.
Gordon reacts to comments on Newcastle striker Woltemade
Nick Woltemade’s cheeky 17th-minute flick, which went in off defender Kevin Mac Allister, set the ball rolling, and two penalties calmly dispatched by Gordon and a fourth goal from substitute Harvey Barnes completed the job in style.
Record signing Woltemade had found himself in Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s firing line ahead of kick-off with the Bayern Munich executive claiming Stuttgart had found “an idiot” to pay £69million for a player the German club had also been chasing.
£150,000-a-week Gordon’s assessment of Rummenigge’s comments on a man who scored for the third time in four starts, however, was withering.
Woltemade might have added to his tally had he managed to get his hands on either of the two penalties, but having seen former team-mate Alexander Isak boost his goals tally from the spot during his time on Tyneside, Gordon was in no mood to let that happen.
He said: “I don’t mind him wanting to take it. A striker should want to take it. But I’ve won too many and not taken them at this club. Now Alex is gone, they’re definitely mine.”
