Christian Atsu has expressed gratitude to teammate Aleksandar Mitrovic for his perfect assist in Saturday's 2-1 win against Cardiff City.

The Ghana international believes that unselfish play from the Serbia international highlights

Mitrovic set up Atsu to score in the third minute before then helping to make the space for Yoan Gouffran to score the second of the game.

Atsu told the Chronicle: ''I am happy to score at St James' Park and it was great to get it so early.

''I was very pleased to see Mitro pass the ball to me then.

''Some strikers would like to take that chance themselves, but he was unselfish and passed it to me.

''I said thank you. Mitro is a good finisher and probably could have scored if he’d shot but he picked me out. I am grateful.''

Atsu had replaced banned Matt Ritchie in the Newcastle United starting line up and the on-loan Chelsea player put up another impressive display.