It's been an interesting week for Newcastle United and one that, for the first time under Matthias Jaissle, raised more questions than it provided answers as to how this season is actually going to pan out.
A chaotic 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at the weekend saw the Magpies under the cosh for most of the first half but ultimately able to come back from 2-0 down in a gutsy performance.
Then a somewhat underwhelming but, again, hard-fought midweek trip to Millwall saw Jaissle's men navigate a tricky Carabao Cup tie to come out 1-0 winners in a fixture where the German probably rotated the side less than most suspected he would.
It might not have been a pretty pair of games, but they did give us some useful clues about which Newcastle players are trending upwards, which are struggling to make an impression, and where there may still be questions for Jaissle to answer.
So, with that being said, join us for Newcastle United stock watch as we take a look at one riser and one faller from this week.
Riser: Matias Fernandez-Pardo
It's not actually particularly clear when searching for an outstanding riser from this week, mainly because there was a drop-off in performances from the previous week.
But one man who definitely provided us with some positive signs is new man Matias Fernandez-Pardo, who we got to see for the first time against Bournemouth and then again against Millwall.
Pardo looked lively on both of his outings, with a hard-working display accompanied by some nice touches and running off the shoulder against the Cherries, followed by a nice little cameo in which he was an integral part of Joe Willock's eventual winner.
For a fee of £51m, you probably are expecting at least a glimpse of something to get excited about in the early showings, but the Belgian has done that job to great effect and there is no disputing that everyone is eagerly awaiting the moment where we see him fully unleashed by Matthias Jaissle.
Faller: Bazoumana Toure
Toure has the unfortunate fate of being this week's faller, but it isn't because of his performances, it's because we haven't actually seen him play at all.
The Ivorian has perhaps suffered from the hype created by his preseason cameos in which he looked very lively, alongside that goal against West Brom in the Carabao Cup of course, because it meant that the bar of expectation was maybe a bit too high - especially when you consider he was brought in under Howe's reign.
The sentiment of bedding him in slowly is completely understandable, but it is a little bit strange that he wasn't given any minutes against Millwall midweek when everybody probably expected him to actually start the game.
Whether it is something tactical, a knock he is struggling to fully recover from or perhaps Matthias Jaissle just not thinking he's ready to be given time on the pitch - the truth is nobody really knows what is going on with Bazoumana Toure right now.
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