“Only the players I play with ever seem to notice that. I think now that I’m at Barcelona and I play a different style, those qualities are highlighted much more and people are actually starting to take notice that I’m not just quick,” Anthony Gordon said in comments to ChronicleLive. He has five assists in seven matches in all competitions this season, a return that fits the point he is making.

Barcelona's role for Gordon

Gordon was signed from Newcastle in the summer transfer window for £69.3million inclusive of add-ons. He has been open about why he wanted the move, too. “Yeah - and that was kind of what I wanted, if I’m honest. I wanted to leave the Premier League. I wanted a different experience and I wanted exactly that.”

That view lines up with another quote from the same interview, where he said people in England tended to see him as “really quick and really aggressive”, while Spain, and Barcelona in particular, value his “IQ and quality” more. Barcelona have won all seven of their league games this season, so the environment he has joined is already giving him plenty of the ball and plenty of confidence.

The early output in Catalonia

The early return is the strongest support for Gordon's point. Five assists in seven matches is a sharp start, and it sits alongside a 7.2 rating in the Champions League and a 6.97 average in La Liga. That is a decent return for a player who arrived with questions about whether he could do more than run at defenders.

Ruud Gullit, quoted by football365.com, also framed Gordon as the summer's real Barcelona story, saying: “Anthony Gordon was the big story, and I think it was a fantastic story because he visualised it. He wanted it. He went and studied Spanish and prepared for it. Now look where he is. That is a fantastic story, and I love it.”

Barcelona have scored 31 league goals in seven games, and Gordon has dropped into a side that is already attacking well. His start does not settle every argument about the fee, but it does show why the move made sense in football terms. The question now is how long he can keep the assist rate up when the fixtures get tighter.

Written by Daniel Hartley with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →