'Class' - Alan Shearer agrees with Eddie Howe as Alexander Isak smashes his Newcastle United record

The Sweden international scored in an eighth consecutive Premier League game, surpassing Shearer and current teammate Joe Willock who both had seven.

Isak broke the deadlock at St James’ Park in the 34th minute when his shot took a heavy deflection on Rayan Ait-Nouri. He doubled his and his side’s tally on the hour-mark when he was found by Bruno Guimaraes in the penalty area.

The 25-year-old then turned provider for Anthony Gordon’s goal. He left the pitch in the 78th minute to a standing ovation.

Posting on X after the game, Shearer simply wrote: He’s class. Isakkkkkk”.

Commenting on Isak’s achievement in his post-match press conference, Howe said: “Yeah, it is an incredible achievement, this is the hardest league in the world to score in against very good defences. So to have that level of quality, his goals today were very different and how they’ve come about.

“The second goal will be underestimated the finish because it looks easy and it certainly wasn’t but that shows his quality and class. He always has that split-second extra to place his finish down to the attributes and technical he has.

“I think he has added a lot of classic centre-forward goals. I mean, the first isn’t as he’s taken the ball out wide left and dribbled and the shot has taken a deflection and gone in but that’s down to his natural dribbling ability.

“The second one is very much a classic number nine in between the posts but with a very good finish. If you look at his goal a lot of his goals have come from crosses recently where he is in the right place at the right time.

“Goalscoring is an art form, it’s about being in the right positions but he also has the technical quality to finish in a calm away. Not a lot of players can do.”

At least Shearer’s total of 206 goals for Newcastle is safe, for now. With 52 goals in 90 appearances, the Swede might just well beat it, if he stays around long enough...