When the Newcastle United teamsheet dropped in the build-up to their game against Brentford, there were a number of eyebrows raised at the omission of Anthony Elanga.

The winger has struggled to find form since joining from Nottingham Forest in the summer for £55million, with a lack of goals and assists from his right-sided role.

However, an eye-catching cameo appearance in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Manchester City - which saw him net his first Newcastle goal with a great solo strike - followed on from some other encouraging performances of late from the 23-year-old.

Elanga's efforts from the bench in midweek at the Etihad, coupled with Anthony Gordon's hamstring issue, seemed to indicate that the winger would in line for a starting role against Brentford, only for Jacob Murphy to surprisingly get the nod instead.

It was all the more surprising given Eddie Howe's glowing praise of Elanga in his pre-match press conference. “He's done a load of good things that could have led to goals," the manager enthused. "But I was just really pleased that he got that reward of the goal. And...