RAFAEL BENITEZ believes Joselu is doing everything he expected when Newcastle United decided to spring a surprise and persuade him to head for St James’ Park last month.

While a long list of attacking targets were being linked with a move to Tyneside and the Magpies struggled to get deals over the line to appease the manager, Benitez was able to get Stoke City to sell the Spanish striker.

And since arriving in a £5m deal the 27-year-old has quickly established himself in Benitez’s starting line-up ahead of last season’s top scorer Dwight Gayle and Aleksandar Mitrovic.

Joselu is expected to keep his place at Brighton tomorrow, even though he has only scored once since joining and despite the fact Gayle replaced him late on against Stoke last weekend.

And Benitez, knowing his summer signing has wasted a few decent scoring chances, said: “Joselu has been fine. We were talking about the chances that he had and the work that he did. Sometimes you can analyse and you can have an opinion about strikers depending on the chances that they have and they take or not.

“But in this case, we were talking about overall, his work and what he was giving to the team, his contribution, and after the chances. The third chance is the one that maybe he could take and we were talking about that, but I think he knows. Today, we were doing some finishing and I think he was thinking about that, how to improve. That is the way.

“He is winning balls in the air, he is holding the ball, he has good movement, his understanding with the people up front is good, he is going to press, so a lot of things - and at the same time, he is there on the end of crosses or whatever. What do you expect from a striker? All these things plus goals, so hopefully he can score goals now.”

While Joselu is clearly in Benitez’s thinking, Gayle has worked his way back into the manager’s mind after a summer when it looked like he would be leaving before the window closed.

Despite scoring 22 goals during the title winning campaign, the former Crystal Palace man was the subject of strong interest from Fulham before the deadline but Newcastle decided not to sell because their valuation was not met. They also didn’t have time to bring in a replacement.

Now Benitez thinks the £10m man is focused on the task at hand. He said: “He’s fine. They were doing finishing today, the offensive players, Mitro, Dwight and Joselu and he's OK. The players, they know when another one is doing well, they have to wait and they have to compete and be ready.

“That is the main thing for me. If they don't understand that is the way, after they will have the chances and they will say, 'I'm here, but I'm not ready'. It's part of the mentality of a good professional, to understand his job and carry on doing what he has to do.”

Newcastle will come up against former manager Chris Hughton, who has worked wonders at Brighton even if he was pipped to the Championship title by his old club last season.

Hughton has since taken Tim Krul to the Amex Stadium and, although he is yet to start in the Premier League for the Seagulls, he could face his former club tomorrow because his loan was turned into a permanent deal earlier this week. Benitez is happy if he faces him.

"The reality is that it was done before and at the beginning it was the same. It was always a permanent deal, the way it was structured. They announced it now, so that's fine,” said Benitez.

"The reality is that we hadn't had too many enquiries about him and then one day Brighton came and asked, so we said: 'OK, he has to go and play.' I wish him all the best - but that's it, I cannot talk too much about that because he is a player who has gone and who we will play this week, and that's fine and that's it.”

Newcastle are without Florian Lejeune. The £8.7m summer buy has picked up an ankle injury and will not be making the trip to the south coast.

Benitez, who lost Lejeune to the same injury against Tottenham on the opening weekend, said: "He was pushing and he was fine but there’s still a little bit of discomfort there.

"He was pushing, he was training after a couple of weeks and then he got back on the bench so he could play.

"But then he was still feeling it a little bit so we decided to stop him and be sure that he is fully ready before pushing. He should hopefully be fine for next weekend."