Christian Atsu’s first Newcastle start in over two months ends in defeat at Burnley

Christian Atsu made his first Premier League start in a Newcastle United shirt since September 29, but it ended in a 1-0 defeat away to Burnley.

The 27-year old was among the starting XI in his first five appearances of the season. He was however confined to starting from the bench in his next eight outings, playing no more than 13 minutes on each occasion.

He started on the right side of a four-man midfield this time and played for 78 minutes before Yoshinori Muto came on to replace him.

4️⃣ changes to the starting XI from last Sunday’s win over Southampton:

IN: Fabian Schär, Sean Longstaff, Christian Atsu, Andy Carroll

OUT: Ciaran Clark, Jonjo Shelvey, Allan Saint-Maximin, Miguel Almirón#NUFC | #BURNEW pic.twitter.com/OIUlvk3gec

— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) December 14, 2019

Atsu made 18 accurate passes (90.5%), 31 touches and one key pass while on the pitch.

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Chris Wood was the man to get the only goal of the game in favour of Burnley.

78′ Change for Newcastle:

↩️ Christian Atsu
🔛 Yoshinori Muto

[1-0]#NUFC | #BURNEW

— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) December 14, 2019

Newcastle remain in 11th spot, one point ahead of the Clarets.

Next on the Tyneside outfit’s agenda is a clash with Jordan Ayew’s Crystal Palace at St. James’ Park next Saturday.