4. Bigirimana Continues To Impress
Despite being one of the back-ups included in last night's game, Gael Bigirimana stood out as the best player on the park last night, again cementing his growing reputation as an excellent upcoming talent. In signing the former Coventry player for around £1m, Newcastle have again unearthed a gem for relatively very little cost, and it isn't hard to see why the Burundi national is drawing comparisons to team-mate Cheick Tiote despite his young age. Against Maritimo, Bigirimana rarely looked under pressure on the ball, turning confidently and passing well, and his yellow card was both unfair and ridiculous, given the drop-ball farce that had come before it. That tackle was well-timed and aggressive, without any malice, and the fact that the referee chose to penalise it for being from behind, despite it being perfectly safe, is a worrying indictment of what we can expect to see increasingly as the game moves away from being full contact to protect the highly-paid assets of big spending football clubs. Bigi is going to be a massive player for the club, particularly if Tiote moves on at the end of this season, with Chelsea still sniffing around and the inevitable links to Arsenal and Manchester United likely to rear their heads again come January and the summer, and this European competition might be the perfect opportunity to give him a chance to mature into his greater role at the club.