Forget Burn: NUFC dud who lost possession every 3.2 touches wasted a golden ticket - opinion

Newcastle United’s fantastic run of form in the Premier League came to an end as they lost 1-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Eddie Howe’s side went into the match off the back of a nine-game unbeaten run in the division but they were unable to make it to double figures.

The Magpies battled hard throughout the match and had a strong shout for a penalty turned down as Jacob Murphy appeared to be pulled down by Trevor Chalobah in the box.

It was not given and then Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the game, for Chelsea, as he ran off the back of Dan Burn before brilliantly bringing the ball down and poking it past Martin Dubravka.

Whilst Burn may have been at fault for not tracking the German international for the winning goal, another player let the side down badly – Sean Longstaff.

Howe was almost forced to select the academy product with Jonjo Shelvey, Joe Willock and Joelinton all missing from the matchday squad.

He was handed a golden ticket to show that he deserves more game time, with an unprecedented set of absentees in his position, and – instead – showed why he has been on the periphery of the squad of late.

On and off the ball, he was caught lacking of what was required throughout the 90 minutes and Howe will surely be hoping that his other midfield options are back sooner rather than later.

Out of possession, he was weak. As per SofaScore, he lost 100% of his aerial battles and 50% of his duels overall, whilst failing to make a single clearance, block or interception. He also made one tackle and was dribbled past twice, which shows that Chelsea’s players were able to get the better of him more often than he was able to get the better of them.

On the ball, he did very little. Via SofaScore, he gave