Premier League 2018-19: 5 Talking Points For Newcastle United from their 1-1 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers

#2 Hardworking Midfield

Sean Longstaff and Matt Ritchie argue with the referee over a decision

The foursome of Ayoze Perez, Sean Longstaff, Isaac Hayden, and Christian Atsu is not the most creative midfield in the Premier League but they are one of the most hardworking defensively.

Sitting in front of the back five, they were crucial in preventing Wolves from gaining a firm foothold on the game after they had weathered the initial period of the home team's dominance.

Longstaff was the most impressive out of all of them. For all the talk about how No.6's in the league should play, Longstaff was Newcastle's Javier Mascherano, sitting in front of the three center-backs and not allowing the Wolves midfield to pass through easily.

His positioning was immaculate and he played co-ordinated football along with Hayden to keep the Portuguese duo of Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho quiet almost through the entire game.

Perez and Atsu were also good - even if they were not exceptional - in the way they transitioned from attack to defence and took up their positions diligently every time Newcastle lost the ball.

While Atsu did leave a little bit to be desired sometimes, Perez being in the right place at the right time proved to be more than helpful in certain situations, especially when DeAndre Yedlin was out of position and Wolves tried to exploit that space on the right-hand side.

However, they did sometimes show a lack of aggression defensively and were caught in two minds sometimes when the Jonny Otto and Matt Doherty went forward as they didn't know whether to track the wingbacks or stay forward for a potential counter.

But no matter the minor mistakes, the effort level never dropped below a hundred percent.