Harvey Barnes catches eyes of Dream Team managers amid chaos of Newcastle’s win over West Ham
NEWCASTLE and West Ham played out one of the most ridiculous games of the Premier League season on Saturday.
One of the St James' Park ball boys refusing to give up his stool to a celebrating Mohammed Kudus (£5m) was probably only the fourth or fifth weirdest thing to happen as the hosts came from 3-1 down to win 4-3 amid a cacophony of noise.
Harvey Barnes (£2.7m) was the Magpies' hero on the day as it was his late brace that sent the home fans into raptures.
From a Dream Team perspective, the 26-year-old's 15-point haul served as a timely reminder of his pedigree.
Barnes has been one of the most free-scoring midfielders in the game when fit but Eddie Howe hasn't been able to call upon him for the majority of the campaign.
The ex-Leicester winger has missed over 30 games through injury this term but has set himself up for a bright finish to 2023/24 after his heroics against the Hammers.
Barnes scored 37 goals across his last three seasons with the Foxes and even earned a senior England cap despite stiff competition in his position.
In fact, he's averaging a goal every 109 minutes for Newcastle since his transfer north, albeit from a limited sample size.
The vast majority of Dream Team managers will need to see more from Barnes before being convinced he's worthy of a transfer but at £2.7m he's a potential bargain to monitor closely.
Helpfully, gaffers will be able to get another look at him this Gameweek as Newcastle are due to host Everton this evening.
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And with Anthony Gordon (£3.8m) having been shown a late red card on Saturday (as he was been heralded as Man of the Match) it seems likely that Barnes will start on the left flank, assuming he's fit enough for such a task.
It remains to be seen whether Howe can fit both Gordon and Barnes into the same starting line-up at the back end of the season.
Both prefer to play from the left but the temptation to name the pair either side of Alexander Isak (£4.2m) in a front three must be strong.
David Moyes was understandably frustrated with how the game played out in the North East but many gaffers were satisfied by the continued good form of Kudus, Jarrod Bowen (£4.9m) and Lucas Paqueta (£4.2m).
All three were among the goal involvements with the Ghana star notching 16 points while the England and Brazil internationals pocketed 12 and six respectively.
Bowen remains third among all midfielders having taken his overall tally to 264 points with Kudus up to sixth on 231 points.
In Gameweek 30, the Irons take on injury-hit Wolves before travelling to Germany to face Xabi Alonso's unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League quarter-finals.
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