OPINION
Newcastle United winger Christian Atsu has been showing signs in recent weeks that he has improved and his transformation from fringe player to first-team regular was completed against Watford on Saturday.
The Magpies may have drew 1-1 with the Hornets at Vicarage Road but that wasn’t due to a lack of effort or quality on Atsu’s part as he was handful throughout.
The 26-year-old even wowed with a few silky skills at certain points and his passes regularly found their target which led to his having chances, even though his teammates make the most of them.
For a long while, even in his opening appearances of this season, Atsu has never looked good for the Premier League as he regularly lost possession due to easily being pushed off the ball and due to the fact he always seemed to pick the wrong option.
However ever since the 1-1 draw with Everton earlier in December, Atsu has transformed into a player with Premier League pedigree as he looks able to make a real difference for his side.
The 26-year-old, who earns £30,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), needed to prove himself across several games to prove that his good games weren’t an anomaly and after making it through the clash with Watford while impressing, he has done just that.
Hopefully Rafa Benitez would have noticed his winger’s notable improvement and his recent form so that he makes the right decision to keep regularly deploying him in his team.
Who knows if Atsu continues to rack up the minutes, there might even be more to come from the player who once only looked good enough to feature in the Championship if that.
