He wanted to congratulate his team-mates and commiserate with the defeated opposition. He planned to head to the jubilant travelling support, drenched but euphoric in the far corner of the ground. There was something he needed to do first, though.
Heading to referee, Stuart Attwell, and his assistants, Isak was handed the match ball. For all that he has achieved so much in his career, some things are still special.
“I’m really happy, first of all with the performance, which was a really good away performance for us, then I’m happy to bag my first hat-trick as well,” said Isak, who has now scored ten goals in his last 11 matches. “When you score two, all you think about is the third one. I’ve had a few times where I’ve scored two, but not the third one, so I’m happy that today was the day.”
A first hat-trick for Isak since he scored three for Real Sociedad in a win over Alaves in February 2021. A first hat-trick for a Newcastle player since Ayoze Perez scored all three goals in a 3-1 win over Southampton in April 2019. And further proof, as if it was needed, of Isak’s goalscoring brilliance and massive importance to this Magpies team.
There is very little chance of Newcastle selling any of their star names in next month’s transfer window, but if either Bruno Guimaraes or Anthony Gordon was to depart, then for all that they would leave a big gap, it is possible to envisage them being successfully replaced.
Isak is different. Even if you got £100m for the Swede, £120m, £140m, how on earth would you even begin to contemplate replacing him? Newcastle couldn’t, and that’s why when Eddie Howe talks confidently of holding on to the 25-year-old, you have to hope his assurances are justified.
Isak is the most in-form striker in the Premier League at the moment, perhaps even in the whole of Europe. He has it all, clinical in front of goal, technically superb, surprisingly strong given his slight frame yet also balletic with the ball at his feet. He is also a willing worker, something that does not always go hand-in-hand with being such an adept finisher.
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At some point, there is every chance he will outgrow Newcastle, unless the club can find a better way of circumventing the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability rules. Fail to qualify for Europe this season, and Isak’s future will be an even hotter topic of debate next summer. For now, though, the Magpies can simply revel in what they’ve got. Newcastle’s best striker since Alan Shearer? Surely, that’s no longer in debate.
“I think he’s really taken to Newcastle,” said Howe. “It’s never a given that a player is going to come and really embrace everything, but for a player to perform really well, I think they have to. They have to buy in to everything that you’re asking them to do. They have to embrace the city, the culture of the city, and I think he has.
“He’s very popular in the dressing room, which isn’t always the case with an out-and-out goalscorer, like he is. But I think that’s because he plays for the team. He’s not playing for himself.
“He’s a very good team-mate in the respect that he will press. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily his most natural asset, but he will do it. He’s done it very effectively for us, and tactically, he’s very good.
“Off the pitch, he’s been really good to manage. We have a lot of discussions, a lot of one-on-one meetings with him, and he’s always talkative, asking questions. He wants to learn, so I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
He certainly sparkled at the weekend, opening the scoring after just 25 seconds as he lashed home a half-volley after Sam Morsy could only deflected Jacob Murphy’s cross into his path.
His second goal was a case of being in the right place at the right time – a crucial part of the striker’s art – when Guimaraes’ aggressive pressing forced an error from Jens Cajuste, who had been placed in an awful position by a misguided pass from Ipswich goalkeeper Arijanet Muric.
The hat-trick goal came early in the second half, with Murphy, who was superb throughout, back-heeling the ball to Isak in the box, and the Swede controlling adeptly before prodding a shot into the bottom corner.
Murphy scored a goal of his own, hammering home via the underside of the crossbar after Anthony Gordon broke across the 18-yard box, and in the end, it was a simply a matter of how big Newcastle’s margin of victory would be, such was the extent of their dominance. It wasn’t quite the eight-goal annihilation of Sheffield United from the start of last season, but on another day, with Guimaraes heading against the post and Isak spurning at least two more good opportunities to add to his own tally, it easily could have been.
“That felt like a real Newcastle performance,” said Isak, at the end of an excellent week that saw the Magpies score 11 goals in three games, return to the top half of the table and reach the last four of the Carabao Cup. “I think we played our way.
“We played like we do at home, which we haven’t done too many times this season (in away games). We were speaking about that before – to play the same way, with the same intensity and same energy as when we are at home. I really think we did.”