Newcastle winger relishing increased competition and quality in the United squad ahead of Premier League relegation run in

New signing Miguel Almiron has clearly caught the eye on the training pitches of La Finca Golf & Spa resort in the south of Spain.

And ahead of the Magpies' clash with relegation-threatened Huddersfield Town this weekend, Atsu says the quality and pace the January signing has brought to the group improves their chances of a positive outcome at the end of the current campaign in May.

"Our new signings you can tell already are very good players," he said of Almiron and Italian full-back Antonio Barreca.

"They are positive additions to our squad, and they will give us a lot of things that we don't have; for example, pace and creativity.

"Almiron is very quick and he knows how to create problems for the opposition.

"Also the left-wing-back, Barreca, he is a very good player who gives us an option out wide. We are just trying to help them achieve their goals here and to make as big an impact as possible."

Meanwhile, the Ghanaian winger has been discussing the impact on the mid-season Spain break on the United squad.

"It's been a really hard week," he said.

"We travelled straight after the Wolves game and we arrived in Spain very late, we trained the same day. Then Wednesday we trained twice, the same on Thursday, we had another session on Friday and then a game on Saturday, so it was a really hard week."

"It was definitely ideal preparation for next week. All the focus has to be on the matches we have coming up. I believe with this game we've played against CSKA Moscow, and the hard work we have put in this week on the training ground, I think we have prepared well. The manager wanted us to be focused on the next games and putting things into practice, and that's what we have done."