Anthony Elanga is one of the most explosive players in the Premier League and there is already excitement about how he could become a favorite of fans at Newcastle United. That speed is the most obvious feature of his game – and the statistics are propagating that.
Micky van der Ven registered the top speed in the Premier League last season, but you don't have to dig much deeper to reveal that Elanga was the striking sprinter in the competition. Seven of the 20 fastest sprints in the Premier League were his.
For context, nobody else in the top 20, including Van de Ven, such a speed touch more than once. Elanga, whose robustness is being illustrated by the fact that he could be seen in all 38 of the Premier League matches of Nottingham Forest, brought that pace time and time again.
Eddie Howe will want to use that undoubtedly threat on the counterattack, but the 23-year-old former winger of Manchester United has shown under Nuno Espirito Santo that his game is now much more than just those extraordinary physical attributes.
Elanga has made a leap forward with forest. With 20 assists for the club in the past two seasons, only Mohamed Salah and Ollie Watkins can do that better. This season his total of 11, his best so far in one season, also in third place in the Premier League.
He is trending in the right direction, his assists rise per 90 minutes year after year during his career. In part, that reflects his set piece delivery. In the 2024/25 season he gave more assists than every Premier League player from Dead-Ball situations.
A perfect example of these two important qualities came during the victory over West Ham in May. Elanga scrambled to pick up a sloping pass from Morgan Gibbs-White, won an error and hit the free kick from which Nikola Milenkovic scored the winning goal.
Forest fans have become used to seeing Elanga using his great speed – described as “absolutely exciting” by Jamie Carragher – on both flanks and that flexibility makes him particularly attractive for Howe because he can cover different positions.
With Nuno about this in April, the Boshoofdcoach Elanga saw as a player who could play “left, middle or right” in his system. It was not unusual to see him be used next to Chris Wood, often on the back while the striker fell deep.
His second goal against Ipswich in March clearly illustrated this. Wood pulled the center of position from position and Elanga ran further to score with his right foot – previously scored with his left on more conventional fashion, cutting in from the right wing.
“It is not one piece in itself, but how two or three pieces work together,” Nuno told Sky Sports. “When Anthony plays in the middle, he must have a reference to break the lines. You can only break the lines if there are opposite movements.”
This is a crucial point to remember when it comes to assessing the merits of a new signing. Although Elanga's assets are difficult to miss, it is how he fits into the Forest Forward line that the team helped to exceed the expectations to qualify for Europe last season.
How well will Elanga adapt to the Newcastle style? He flourished under Nuno and his properties suggest that he should be a good fit for Howe and his urgent intensity. But it is worth noting that the two teams could hardly be in possession of anything else.
No team in the Premier League allowed their opponents to continue as little as Newcastle last season, their urgent game fundamentally for their success. Forest's game plan was different. They were deeper and created space to attack.
This brought the best in Elanga because of his ability to load in that space. Last season he was only in second place of Kamaldeen Sulemana in terms of average surrender distance by attacking players, giving Forest the field with the ball at his feet.
Newcastle wants him to start higher. But Elanga has the attributes to press. The refinement of the outdoor possession of Forest under Nuno was a bit underestimated, in particular the requirements that the defensive set for the wing players.
It was Elanga's task to offer protection from possession. Ryan Yates, the long-term Forest midfielder, said that the big change in the game of Elanga had come off the ball. He made that claim to Nuno in the spring, he agreed. “It's much better now,” he said.
Van Elanga's role, in particular, he added: “It requires knowledge of the game, the spaces to occupy, the lines that you want to cut, how to prevent you from being [counter-attacked on]How to make the right time for the other teammates to press. It's hard work. “
That hard work will not be negotiable under Howe, even if the tasks change. And there is no better standard setter than Jacob Murphy, the man in possession of Newcastle's right and one of the two players, in addition to Salah, to register more assists last season.
But Elanga's age profile, his consistent availability, his flexibility, his work ethics and his willingness to improve are all factors to his advantage when it comes to the potential that became clear for the first time when he broke into the Manchester United team.
Back in the Champions League for the first time since United's only goal against Atletico Madrid scored in 2022, this is another player who has a blinking from Old Trafford. But Newcastle has the right to believe that there is much more from Anthony Elanga.