Alan Shearer has told Eddie Howe Newcastle United's starting XI to face Nottingham Forest

Howe made the bold call to leave Sandro Tonali out of his starting XI against Arsenal on Saturday and name a midfield three of Bruno Guimaraes, Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff. Meanwhile, Joelinton started on the left side of attack with Anthony Gordon swapping to the right and Alexander Isak leading the line.

And Howe’s big decisions paid off with Isak’s header from Gordon’s cross in the 12th minute ending a run of five games without a league win.

“It more like when we were qualifying for the Champions League, hard to play against, great energy, a bit of nastiness and they were really good in their pressing and made it much more difficult for Arsenal,” Shearer told the Rest is Football Podcast.

“Eddie Howe had to make some big decisions in terms of his midfield, he left Tonali out and played Joelinton on the left-hand side of a front three and played Willock on the left-hand side of the midfield three. Great energy.

“I thought Longstaff was fantastic as well and what about the goal!? The cross and the header was a thing of beauty, wasn’t it?”

Next up for Newcastle is Nottingham Forest, whose flying start to the new campaign sees them sit third in the table, but only four points ahead of the Magpies in 11th.

And Shearer believes Howe should stick with the same starting line-up.

“That was key to how Newcastle played, the balance of the midfield and the balance of the front three,” Shearer added. “Joelinton put a shift in on the left and I thought it was much better.

“Eddie has been searching for that right balance and he struggled to find it but I thought because of what happened on Wednesday night in the Carabao Cup with Newcastle beating Chelsea, there were signs then that the energy was back and everything that they were searching for.

“It was nearly there on Wednesday and they carried that into the game against Arsena land they did that and the balance looked spot on. I'd stick with that if everyone is fit, definitely.”