Merson hails Joe Willock and Takumi Minamino

On the transfer deadline,

permitted

Joe Willock

to join

. Meanwhile,

Takumi Minamino

made a shock transfer to

.

Both players had their debut performances occur in the same match, with each of the duo scoring for their sides in a 3-2 tight

match which was a victory for Newcastle.

Paul Merson

praised the two players, as Minamino’s strike was the most outstanding of the match.

“

Minamino scores out of nothing

,” said Merson. “

Great finish. You can see he has been at Liverpool. He takes it in and puts it into the roof of the net.

“Willock had a good debut. He scored his goal and he worked very hard. When they were down to ten men, and nine men, he kept the ball well.

“He bought time and he got a couple of free-kicks. That’s perfect.”

Willock was looking for more game time which he was not provided with at Arsenal. Newcastle are also struggling in the bottom half and it will put more pressure on the 21-year-old to bring out the best in him.

Minamino, on the other hand, has not done anything wrong at

, and taking their injury record into consideration, the Japan international’s departure came as a surprise.

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