Incredible form from Newcastle. Magpies headed by Howe for salvation

It didn’t look good at all at the beginning of the season. Newcastle struggled and waited until December for their first win. However, under Eddie Howe the team has made an incredible run and it looks like we will see him in the Premier League next season.

Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Brighton means that Newcastle haven’t lost 8 games in a row, the last time they did that in the Premier League was in 2011.

Thanks to their good form, the Magpies have moved up to 14th place and have 28 points, which means a seven-point lead on the relegation zone. A respectable performance, considering that back in mid-January they were in 19th position with just 12 points.

The defence in particular is working, and it has changed beyond recognition under Eddie Howe. For 2021, Newcastle set an unflattering Premier League record of 80 goals conceded. In 2022 the Magpies received only 4 goals, the fewest in the league.

A great catch was Trippier, who before his injury managed to score twice in 4 games (how else but from a direct line), one of which was the winning goal, and contribute to 2 clean sheets.

Dan Burn also put in a great performance against his former team on Saturday. While Brighton lost 4 out of 5 games after his departure, conceding a total of 8 goals, Newcastle can’t complain.

The lanky defender and club alumnus played 4 games for the Magpies (3 wins, 1 draw), and contributed to 2 clean sheets, while his team only got 2 goals.

While Trippier, Burn, as well as Matt Targett have immediately settled into the starting lineup, the most expensive January signing Bruno Guimarães is so far only picking up the final minutes of games as a substitute. Given the team’s current form, however, Howe has no need to push him into the starting lineup at any cost.

If we wanted to look for flaws, more productivity was expected from Chris Wood, who hasn’t yet established himself at his new club. However, Newcastle cannot complain about the lack of goals at the moment.

In the last round and the one before that, Willock finally asserted himself, thus giving a reminder of his very goal-oriented engagement at Newcastle last season. Ryan Fraser has also been very productive, scoring 2 goals and 2 assists in the last 5 games.

In addition, the team’s main offensive weapon, Allan Saint-Maximin, has also returned after a two-game absence. However, although almost everything looks good in Newcastle now, Howe is trying to temper the enthusiasm.

“I think we’re still in a fight to stay up and it’s important for the players to realise that because we can’t concede now,” he gushed in his post-match assessment.

His charges really shouldn’t slack off now as they face a tough challenge – a run of 4 away games against Southampton, Chelsea, Everton and Tottenham. For now, however, fans can be satisfied – probably few of them would have thought at the beginning of the season that they would be 5 points away from the top 10 in March.

Source: Sky Sports, Newcastle United