'Surprised' Sven Botman responds in style as Rolls-Royce star sends message to Eddie Howe

Following our 1-1 draw with Bournemouth last month, The Athletic revealed how Sven Botman was 'surprised and frustrated' to have been left out of Eddie Howe's 11.

He reacted by withdrawing from the Netherlands' U21 squad the following week, deciding to focus on club football and train on Tyneside over the international break.

After impressing Howe in training, our £35m man regained his place in the Newcastle defence at Craven Cottage, and backed that up with a practically faultless display in our 4-1 win at Fulham on Saturday.

He won't grab the headlines after Almiron's stunner, Bruno's midfield masterclass and Wilson's goal on his return, however his performance was one of the big positives for me.

The term 'Rolls-Royce' is sometimes overused in football, but he looked oozed class over the weekend. OK, we spent the majority of the game up against 10 men, but he didn't lose an aerial duel against Aleksandar Mitrovic, played a key role in Longstaff's goal, looked cool under pressure, showed bursts of recovery pace when he needed to and real quality on the ball, spraying one stunning pass out to Kieran Trippier to get us on the front foot early on.

His reaction to Fulham's late goal was also telling, as he turned away furiously and questioned why the cross came in unchallenged after losing his clean sheet in the 88th minute.

Tougher tests are on the way, but Botman's reaction to being dropped against Bournemouth and classy yet commanding display on Saturday sent the perfect message to Eddie Howe as we head into our final seven games before the World Cup.