Whether or not Newcastle United qualify for the Champions League and compete for a trophy this season, there's no question that Matthias Jaissle has started strongly after the collapse of the Eddie Howe era.

Newcastle felt they had entered the end times only one month ago, with Howe parting ways with the Toon after the sales of Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali. Skipper Bruno Guimaraes was in the process of joining Premier League champions Arsenal for £75m, and all this exacerbated a rebuild assigned after last year's 12th-place finish.

But the Magpies' essence appears to still be intact. Hard-fought performances over Liverpool and Tottenham to start the season confirm that the Toon are still ready for a fight, and four points creates the perfect foundation for the months ahead.

After all, it's not as if Jaissle doesn't have bona fide quality to work with - Matias Fernandez-Pardo has arrived and is ready to serve as the club's new talisman in attack.

Why Fernandez-Pardo can become Newcastle's new talisman

Nick Woltemade left Newcastle and joined Juventus on loan at the end of the summer transfer window. The £69m club-record signing hasn't quite worked out, but Fernandez-Pardo brings a different kind of attacking quality for Jaissle to work with.

The new manager's fast and intense style of football could see Fernandez-Pardo, 21, dovetail right in, with the Belgian's electric-paced running and eagerness to strike on goal allowing him to shift between left wing and No. 9.

Jaissle believes Fernandez-Pardo's courageous and tenacious attacking performances will spearhead the way toward revival for the Toon, bringing the kind of focal attacking energy that the club will need now that Gordon has settled in at Barcelona after his £69m summer transfer.

Like Gordon, Newcastle's new forward is competent across different positions. He is fast and direct, with an eye for goal.

But in truth, the Tyneside outfit may have signed someone else who could bring a Gordon-esque kind of leadership to St. James' Park this season.

Meet Newcastle's new Anthony Gordon

Gordon left Newcastle after the 2025/26 season wrapped up, and it came as a surprise to few. He wasn't perfect, but Gordon was a leader, and with Tonali and Guimaraes also gone, the England international's spirit and drive needs replacing.

Fernandez-Pardo can replace him in style, but centre-midfielder Nico Gonzalez could be the one to lead the way forward this season, as Gordon tried to do under Howe's wing last year.

With Alexander Isak having been sold to Liverpool, Gordon took it upon himself to become Newcastle's main man. It was a mixed bag of a year for the Three Lions forward, but he did score ten goals from 12 Champions League appearances.

Gonzalez won't have the same goalscoring effect, but he could be the catalyst in the middle of the Newcastle park, and in that, could end up proving the outfit's star signing of the summer, a game-changer and tempo-setter.

Fernandez-Pardo is supremely talented, but he only scored eight goals and provided five assists in Ligue 1 last year. Gonzalez might not have excelled at the Etihad, but he knows the Premier League now, and did make improvements over his year-and-a-half in Manchester.

Against Tottenham last weekend, the Spain international produced a first-class debut performance, so assured and crisp in the engine room.

It's important not to get carried away by a new signing's first performance; but then, it's also tough not to be dazzled by such a consummate display, with Gonzalez putting Tonali to shame.

More where that came from? The Toon persuasion will certainly hope so, and while Gonzalez might not be a flashy goalscoring winger in the same vein as Gordon, his talismanic quality was clear on that evening in north London, a leader and someone who can spearhead the Magpies forward.

He has, after all, been praised by Pep Guardiola in the past as something of a "mini Rodri", and if he can end up half as good as his former Man City teammate, it's clear that Newcastle have struck a fantastic deal.

An experienced Premier League star with bundles of talent and the need to prove themselves after not quite living up to their potential? Sounds like Gonzalez could emulate Gordon in growing into a superstar on Tyneside over the next few years.