Newcastle United midfielder Christian Atsu has admitted he got lucky with his assist for Mo Diame’s freak winner against Brighton on Tuesday night.
The Magpies trailed against Brighton in a crucial top of the table clash following a 14th minute penalty from Glenn Murray until staging a dramatic comeback in the final ten minutes to overtake the Seagulls on their way to 1st place in the Championship.
Mo Diame scored in the 89th minute to snatch three points from the fixture, but the manner in which the decisive goal was scored has come into question as Christian Atsu’s shot-turned-pass ricocheted off of the Senegalese’s boot and floated over Brighton ‘keeper David Stockdale and into the top corner in what looked like either a technical masterclass or a comedy of errors.
Atsu, on loan from Chelsea, admits he did not mean to pass the ball to eventual goalscorer Diame, calling his role in the goal that fired his team into first place “lucky,” as reported by The Shields Gazette.
“I can’t really pretend that I meant to do that,” he said, “but I will take the assist, and I am very happy for Mo that he scored.
“I meant the one for Ayoze (Perez), though!”
Atsu’s intentions for his two assists at the AMEX Stadium won’t matter too much to Newcastle fans, who will be feeling much more confident of seeing their team stage a Premier League return at the end of the season following this result and will be excited at the now likely prospect of winning some silverware.
Atsu says that his side had to “fight really hard” to leave the south coast victorious, adding that: “This is a team that keeps fighting and keeps believing.
We stuck to our game plan, and at the end of the game, it came good for us and we were able to come through.”
“It was a really exciting finish, and we are really happy that we were able to win the game in that way.