The Premier League is up and running, yet very close now to putting a halt on the action we have seen so far to allow the winter World Cup to kick-off a Christmas festival of football. Due to the chaos of a disrupted season, scheduling issues and Arsenal doing very well, it’s a strange time in the Premier League, and football in general.

For the month of October, and final month before the WC break, we’ve been spoilt for choice for our POTM selection, with goal scorers, shot stoppers and assist kings all putting forward a claim to hold the award throughout the extended pause.

Our selection is a player who has seriously stepped up this season, when perhaps some had written him off. Miguel Almiron could well have bee n on his way out of a potentially high spending Newcastle who have already made some big moves in the market. For Almiron, who was openly mocked by Jack Grealish last summer, this year could have been his final run at the club, however he has really shown his potential with Newcastle flying high early in the season.

Although too early to tell at this point, Newcastle could well be challenging for Europe come the summer, and they will certainly have the Paraguayan to thank after the goals, assists and all-round attacking threat he has give Howe’s side so far this season.

If you have anything to add to our NextGoalWinner POTM decision, or disagree with our pick, head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and let us know what you think.

Match By Match

October 1st: Fulham 1-4 Newcastle United – Kicking off an unbeaten month of football for Newcastle and Almiron, things got off to a flying start, cruising to victory over an admittedly very impressive Fulham side who have silenced many doubters with their early performances. That said, Almiron put them to the sword as he hit Newcastle’s 2nd and 4th to secure a strong victory. After Fulham went down to 10 men, Newcastle made them pay, and Almiron was on top form for this one, scoring 2, having a 93% pass accuracy, 100% shot accuracy, 100% long ball accuracy and 100% tackle success. It’s no wonder he was awarded player of the match for this showing, and this certainly kick started his month.

October 8th: Newcastle United 5-1 Brentford – The scoring continued a week later, as Newcastle again ran riot, this time in front of their home fans. While it’s hard to be picky at this point, the loss of a clean sheet will have annoyed Eddie Howe and certainly Nick Pope, however I don’t think they will mind too much with the run of form the side are showing. Almiron bagged the 4th shortly before departing, and had another solid evening. Managing an 8.4/10 to follow from his 9/10 the previous week, those 2 performances alone could well have put him up for the award, but he wasn’t done there.

October 16th: Manchester United 0-0 Newcastle United – The only blank of the entire month for Almiron, and the only blip in the whole month of football for Newcastle, yet considering the improvements Manchester United have made this season, it can’t be too disappointing for Howe’s side. For Almiron, he managed just a 6.3/10 due to Newcastle setting up their defensive stall and limiting the attacking chances for Almiron to capitalise on. He had the least touches of any outfield player to play the full 90 (39) and this just shows the type of game this was. Keeping Ronaldo and co out however will be good enough for Newcastle and they will have left Old Trafford with a smile after this one.

October 19th: Newcastle United 1-0 Everton – This one will have felt very good for Almiron, as he netted the winner for his side to get back to winning ways, after their 0-0 with Man United days prior. With the match winner, being the most accurate passer and also maintaining 100% tackle success, he did his duties well, even if he could only achieve a 7.8/10 FotMob rating for his efforts.

October 23rd: Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Newcastle United – With another big result against a tough opponent, this result signalled just how far Newcastle could go this season, as they got off to a strong first half 2-0 lead thanks to Wilson and Almiron, they held out despite Kane getting one back midway through the 2nd half. Almiron earned his 2nd player of the match award, with a 8.4/10 FotMob rating, 1 goal, most accurate passing percentage (94%), 100% cross accuracy, 100% tackle success and 6 recoveries, it’s again his all-round game that has been so impressive, not just the goals,

October 29th: Newcastle United 4-0 Aston Villa – Returning back to their free-scoring form of earlier in the month, Newcastle ensured they went into the WC break in the best possible form. Having scored Newcastle’s 4th, Almiron was just putting the icing on the cake of a huge month for him and his club, as he brings his total to 6 goals for the month, and a huge 16 in 6 for Newcastle while also remaining unbeaten and only dropping 2 points despite coming up against some tricky opposition. It’s been a huge month, and for Mr Grealish, he could only dream of playing like Almiron…