If you want to know how little Nick Pope has had to do of late, there's a simple statistic that will help with that. The Newcastle United stopper hasn't had to face a shot on target at St James' Park since the 5-1 win over Brentford on October 8.
Since then, both Everton and Aston Villa have travelled to Tyneside and left without testing the summer addition in between the sticks at all. Pope had a quiet afternoon during Saturday's 4-0 win as his rock solid back four put in another stellar showing in front of him.
Dan Burn put in a huge tackle to stop Emi Buendia from opening the scoring in the opening stages, moments before Kieran Trippier was forced to throw himself in front of an effort on its way through to Pope's goal. The two full-backs have enjoyed a fine start to the season and have hardly put a foot wrong since their arrivals in January.
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However, summer addition Sven Botman is the man taking the plaudits after fitting in on Tyneside in a matter of months. The Dutch defender made it look effortless again on Saturday as he kept Danny Ings quiet throughout.
Botman is emerging as a fan-favourite at St James' Park after only a matter of games since leaving Lille. Former team-mate at the Ligue 1 side, Jonathan David, even left an affectionate comment on the defender's Instagram post over the weekend, referring to him as: "Mr Clean Sheet."
Botman has kept six clean sheets in just 881 minutes of football this season, with Newcastle boasting the best defence in the top flight. The summer signing is already looks a snip at his £35m price.
“My faith in him is huge,” Howe said of Botman earlier this month. “We really fought to sign him and we stuck to our guns because he was the one we wanted.
"I see so much potential in his game. He’s very good on the ball. But he’s surprised me with how good his technical delivery has been.”
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