Newcastle United and the rest of the Premier League ‘Big 7’ – Results since World Cup (You might be surprised…) | OneFootball

The Premier League is experiencing a season like no other.

The three decades since the rebranding and launch of the Premier League (and indeed all the years previous to that) never before seeing a World Cup finals plonked right in the middle of a league season.

Much was made of how Newcastle United and their Premier League rivals would cope.

There appears to be a general acceptance / acknowledgement these days of a Premier League ‘big seven’ now in its existence.

So I have concentrated on these seven clubs to give a bit of context to how Newcastle United have fared, compared to these other six clubs

Results against other Premier League clubs (in PL games and in cups) and in European competition since the Qatar World Cup:

Man City

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Played 16 Won 10 Drawn 3 Lost 3

Man Utd

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Played 16 Won 12 Drawn 3 Lost 1

Arsenal

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Played 11 Won 6 Drawn 2 Lost 3

Chelsea

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Played 12 Won 2 Drawn 4 Lost 6

Tottenham

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Played 11 Won 5 Drawn 1 Lost 5

Liverpool

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Played 14 Won 5 Drawn 3 Lost 6

Newcastle United

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Played 13 Won 6 Drawn 5 Lost 2

The idea that Newcastle United are suddenly a struggling team since the World Cup, is simply not the case.

In fact, since the Qatar World Cup, Eddie Howe’s team have remained one of the best performing Premier League clubs.

Not all conquering as was the case before the World Cup, nine games against Premier League clubs with eight wins and one draw, but still very good.

Looking at these other Premier League ‘big seven’ clubs, the reality is that despite spending ridiculous amounts of money, Chelsea are having a horrendous time of it, only two wins in their last twelve in the stats above.

Liverpool not a great deal better, with only five wins in fourteen games and six defeats in that run.

Tottenham a couple of decent very recent results but losing five of their eleven post-World Cup games.

League leaders Arsenal (Won 6 Drawn 2 Lost 3) pretty much on a par with Newcastle (Won 6 Drawn 5 Lost 2).

Whilst Man City (Won 10 Drawn 3 Lost 3) no significantly better than NUFC either.

Indeed, it is Man Utd (Won 12 Drawn 3 Lost 1) who are the real form team.

Trust Newcastle United to get to a cup final after a 24 years absence and then have the bad luck to run into the team that had hit the very best form of all after the World Cup.

In case you were doubting the Newcastle United post-World Cup stats, these are the 13 games played against Premier League clubs since football resumed in December:

Newcastle 1 Bournemouth 0

Leicester 0 Newcastle 3

Newcastle 0 Leeds 0

Arsenal 0 Newcastle 0

Newcastle 2 Leicester 0

Newcastle 1 Fulham 0

Crystal Palace 0 Newcastle 0

Southampton 0 Newcastle 1

Newcastle 2 Southampton 1

Newcastle 1 West Ham 1

Bournemouth 0 Newcastle 0

Newcastle 0 Liverpool 2

Newcastle 0 Man U 2

Newcastle United are not suddenly a bad team and tactics / formation hopeless.

Eddie Howe’s side have simply I think hit a bit of a flat spot in the season very recently and that has combined with back luck, bad decisions by match officials and failure to convert chances at key times, turning what might have been wins back in October and November into now draws and a couple of defeats.

What about the lack of goals?

Yes, what about the lack of goals, I hear you ask.

Well, we were never really a free scoring team this season.

I think too many people have been blinded by a couple of factors.

Miguel Almiron hitting a purple patch of goalscoring from absolutely nowhere AND the 23 goals that were scored in six Premier League matches.

In total, Newcastle have scored 35 Premier League goals in 23 matches BUT as I say above, 23 of the 35 were scored in just six games. In the other 17 PL games, Newcastle have only scored 12 goals. In these other 17 PL games, NUFC have scored two goals on two occasions, one goal in a match another eight times, whilst seven times failing to score at all. However, those seven failures to score have still brought six points, due to the quality of the defending preventing the likes of Arsenal and Man Utd scoring at home.

The struggle to score a lot of goals hasn’t just happened, it has been season-long.

Eddie Howe has a team that first and foremost is built on a solid defence. With the Head Coach then going with a high energy, high press from the midfield and forwards that has helped make less pronounced the definite lower inherent attacking quality the NUFC individuals have, compared to their Premier League ‘big seven’ rivals.

Newcastle’s relative success built this season on a so solid defence conceding so few goals and with defenders in Trippier, Botman and Schar who also have real quality on the ball, in terms of bringing / playing the ball forward. That then complemented by the players further forward giving that high press to try and force errors in dangerous positions, maybe best summed up by that victory at Tottenham.

Moving forward

Even before we start thinking about summer signings, there is serious room for improvement that could be on its way already these remaining three months of the season, when it comes to Premier League goal threat coming from Newcastle United.

After winning six and drawing three of the post-world cup games against PL clubs, Bruno Guimaraes of course missed the next three, before returning for Sunday’s cup final.

Fingers crossed the injury picked up late on against Man U proves to be only minor and in the weeks and months to come, he along with Alexander Isak (only five PL starts so far) and Anthony Gordon (0 PL starts for Newcastle so far) can help make NUFC a far more effective attacking side.

Unlike many others, I am not writing off Saturday’s Man City match whatsoever.

As the stats above show, they have failed to win three of their last six games against Premier League / Bundesliga opposition and if Bruno is fit and potentially Gordon and Isak come into the starting eleven as well, as well as the return of Nick Pope, no reason why we can’t believe Newcastle can come away with at least a point against a Man City side not at their best.

Both the Newcastle United players and fans need to get their heads right after these defeats against Liverpool and Man Utd. If so, no reason why this NUFC side with the character of the likes of Pope, Trippier, Botman, Bruno and Joelinton can’t help to get things on the up again, avoid defeat at the very least against Man City and then really get on the front foot when Newcastle play Wolves and Forest ahead of the international break.

Seven points from those three matches and Newcastle United will be right back on track for a top four finish.