Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton and Fulham nonsense finally needs put to bed | OneFootball

I am left shaking my head when I read and hear Newcastle United fans saying this about Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton and Fulham.

Supporters marvelling at this 2024/25 season just ended.

A season that brought a first trophy in 56 years, Champions League qualification and a top five finish in the Premier League.

However, many of these same Newcastle United fans also seeing Eddie Howe and his players having this major issue at the same time, some of these fans even making out that this NUFC team somehow let themselves and ourselves down in some ways.

These Newcastle United fans seeing it as inexplicable, a disgrace even, as to why United got these 2024/25 results against Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton and Fulham.

The ‘reasoning’ goes that whilst Eddie Howe’s side have been ruthless with those at the bottom end and got overall very positive outcomes against the other clubs who finished top seven, at the same time they have inexplicably struggled against those teams around the middle of the table.

This is how the 2024/25 Premier League table ended up:

Specifically, these Newcastle United fans pointing to Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton and Fulham, who filled the next four positions after top seven.

Eddie Howe’s side with a record against the four of them this past season of:

Played 8 Won 1 Drawn 2 Lost 5 and only five points from a possible 24 against this quartet.

Just look some of them will say, if Newcastle United had picked up the other 19 points against these four clubs, United would have ended up on 85 points as champions!

I just find the whole reasoning ridiculous.

Not those on the extreme who will say NUFC could have been champions, I am talking about the far larger number of Newcastle United fans who find it inexplicable, unexplainable, unacceptable, that United could have collected so few points against these four clubs who finished in the places below top seven.

First of all, here are the positive results these four clubs achieved against the other teams that finished in the top seven.

Brighton

Draws: Man City, Forest, Villa, Arsenal (twice!)

Bournemouth

Wins: Man City, Forest, Arsenal (twice!)

Draws: Chelsea, Forest, Villa

Brentford

Wins: Forest

Draws: Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal

Fulham

Wins: Chelsea, Liverpool, Forest (twice!)

Draws: Liverpool, Arsenal

You look at Brighton, they only lost four of their 12 matches against the other six teams in the top seven.

Bournemouth only lost five of their 12, Fulham only lost six of their 12.

In games against the very top two…

Fulham got a win and a draw against champions Liverpool and got a draw against Arsenal. Bournemouth beat Arsenal home and away, whilst Brighton got a win against Liverpool and were unbeaten against Arsenal.

My conclusions

As I made clear at the start, I find it ridiculous this overreaction when it comes to results Newcastle United had against these four clubs.

Forgetting about the league placings for a second, I think a lot of this with Newcastle United fans is that it’s about teams ‘like’ Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton and Fulham. If it had been say Spurs, Man U etc who had finished between eighth and eleventh, then there wouldn’t have been this over the top nonsense.

I hate Newcastle United losing to any team BUT the fact is that Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton and Fulham all played well overall this season and indeed, were exceptional at times, often putting lengthy runs of great results together. Brentford had the best home record in the Premier League when Newcastle lost there in December, Bournemouth were unbeaten in nine when coming to St James’ Park and winning AND they then hammered Forest 5-0 in their next match.

Newcastle United fans seeing these four as smaller clubs and not stellar names BUT the way the finances of the Premier League are set up, it massively helps clubs like these to compete, especially when based in the south, especially in London, it appears far easier to attract very rich owners.

All of these four clubs have very good players, all have a fair few real quality players, many of who will very likely be turning out for ‘big’ clubs next season.

All four of these teams play attacking brave football, keep the ball well and as shown above, can cause major problems for any Premier League team on their day.

The margins are so small in so many matches.

Forest only finished four points ahead of Brighton (Newcastle only five points above them) and if Brighton had won at the City Ground instead of getting hammered 7-0, then Brighton would have finished top seven and Forest one of the quartet that ended up just below top seven.

Newcastle won all three matches against Forest this past season, including in the League Cup on the way to Wembley.

Newcastle lost twice to Brighton, including in the FA Cup and it could have been three defeats if not for a last minute United equaliser on the south coast.

These things happen.

It isn’t some impossible to explain how this happened kind of thing.

The way some Newcastle United fans are going on, you would think the results had been against the relegated clubs who finished with 12 to 25 points and not ones who finished with 54 to 61 points.

Last summer Brighton were the highest spending Premier League club and brought in £235m (stat via Transfermarkt) worth of new signings, including paying £33m for one of Newcastle’s brightest young prospects that NUFC were forced to sell for PSR reasons, that player scoring both home and away for the Seagulls against United.

These Newcastle United fans also find it easy to pick and choose the teams, if you want to highlight the defeats to Fulham who finished 11th, why not include Palace who finished one place and one point below? Newcastle hammering Palace 5-0 at SJP and only denied a win at Selhurst Park in added time.

I have even seen some Newcastle United fans wanting to include West Ham in this fantasy of inexplicable results against those below top seven in the ‘middle’ of the table, due to NUFC losing at home to them (but winning away). If you want to include the Hammers (who finished 14th on 43 points) in these claims of unacceptable results, then you also have to surely include Man U and Wolves who ended up just a point behind West Ham, those two teams Newcastle got 12 out of 12 points against. Indeed, the six teams to finish below West Ham, Newcastle picked up a maximum 24 points out of a possible 24.

When you look at the Premier League table this 2024/25 season it was ultra competitive, a lot of very good teams, capable of beating anybody on their day.

Crystal Palace finished 12th on 53 points and also won the FA Cup, with of course then another 11 PL clubs getting 54 points or more.

In the 16 seasons after 2005/06, only once did Newcastle United manage to get 50 Premier League points or more in a season!

Maybe next season, one or more of Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton and Fulham will dramatically fall away BUT that doesn’t change the fact that in the 2024/25 Premier League season, all four were very decent teams who on their day could beat anybody.