Steve Parish's roll of the dice may backfire as Newcastle United save millions with alternative

February 24. That was the last time Newcastle United lined up in the Premier League without Dan Burn. To say the towering Geordie has been an ever-present under Eddie Howe would be an understatement.

Burn was certainly missed at St James' Park on Monday night. Only league leaders Liverpool boasted a meaner defence in the top-flight before Newcastle's 2-0 defeat against West Ham, but the Magpies found themselves a goal down in the 10th minute after the visitors scored from their first corner of the night.

Newcastle had not previously conceded from a corner in the opening months of the campaign, but Tomas Soucek found it far too easy to step away from Lloyd Kelly, who was filling in for the suspended Burn, and the Czech Republic international powered a header past Nick Pope.

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"We will be very disappointed with that," Howe admitted. "We know his threat aerially. We know their threat from set-plays. We missed Dan Burn's presence in our box tonight from that situation.

"Whenever you go a goal down, you give yourself a different dynamic. The game changes. The feelings change."

There was still plenty of time left for Newcastle to get back into the game - Joe Willock, Lewis Hall, Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon (twice) all had chances - but the black-and-whites could only muster two shots on target from 18 efforts. Wasting those openings proved costly when Newcastle conceded another uncharacteristically sloppy goal in the second half.

Lucas Paqueta nipped in to take the ball off the casual Bruno Guimaraes in the middle of the park and the Brazilian picked out Jarrod Bowen on the right. Bowen waited - attracting both Lewis Hall and Sean Longstaff to him - before threading the ball through to Aaron Wan-Bissaka inside the box.

Kelly did not get tight enough to Wan-Bissaka, who had the time he needed to look up and pick his spot, and the right-back drilled the ball in off the post to double West Ham's advantage. Ragged Newcastle never recovered after shipping two goals at home for the first time this season.

It is important to remember that it was Kelly's first start in a month - the defender impressed in his last outing against Chelsea - and Newcastle have had some shockers when Burn has been in the side, too. Newcastle conceded three goals at Fulham, for instance, when Burn was lining up in the heart of defence and Chelsea exploited the 32-year-old's pace for Nicolas Jackson's opener last month.

However, Newcastle are invariably a better side with Burn in the team and the veteran's defensive know-how, leadership skills and ability to organise those around him are priceless qualities. The numbers don't lie in that regard; Burn has made more clearances (49) and won more aerial duels (41) than any other Newcastle player by a distance in the Premier League this season. It was rather telling that Newcastle only won seven aerial duels against West Ham without the 6ft 7in Burn while the Hammers won twice as many.

There can be little doubt that Burn will walk back into the side at Crystal Palace on Saturday and the Geordie won't need any added motivation at Selhurst Park. After all, this will be the first time that Newcastle will come up against Crystal Palace since the Magpies attempted to sign Eagles captain Marc Guehi last summer.

A failure to reach an agreement felt like a gamble on both sides at the time. Newcastle did not land their top target while Crystal Palace missed out on a club-record sum when Guehi's stock was at its highest following an impressive Euros. However, Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish looks to have taken the bigger risk; Guehi is now edging towards the the final year-and-a-half of his contract with little prospect of a renewal and the England international's market value will obviously only drop the closer we get to July, 2026.

Newcastle will need to strengthen this position in the long run - even when Sven Botman returns - as Burn and defensive partner Fabian Schar approach their 33rd birthdays. However, Monday night was a timely reminder of just how important Burn remains to this side.