Newcastle United’s chart-leading duo as club rediscover Eddie Howe’s winning mentality

Victories over Chelsea, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest have helped revive Newcastle United’s season after a dip which threatened to derail their hopes of European football - even at this early stage. A change in personnel and tweak in system, namely moving Joelinton to the wing and a midfield three of Sean Longstaff, Bruno Guimaraes and Joe Willock, have helped to spark their transformation.

For many, their last few outings have been very reminiscent of the team that qualified for the Champions League during the 2022/23 season. In that year, the Magpies were very hard to beat and a unit that many teams did not want to come up against. 

They lost that a bit last year as injuries mounted, but have seemed to rediscover that resilience in recent times and are once again a difficult team to play against. This is supported by stats provided by Opta show that the Magpies have won more fouls than any other side in the Premier League this season having won 154 from their 11 games.

Unsurprisingly to anyone that has watched Newcastle play this season, Guimaraes is their most fouled  player with the Brazilian leading the charts in the division having been fouled 45 times in all, 19 more than any other player in the league. Second on that list is Anthony Gordon who, tied with Cole Palmer, has been fouled 26 times.

Gordon draws a lot of fouls by being direct at defenders whilst Guimaraes is a specialist at winning free-kicks when his side are under pressure and managing to slow the game down, just when they need it. It may not be a tactic that Howe has specifically implemented, however, it is something that is making them a difficult team to face - and that is when Newcastle United under Howe have been at their best.

They were masters of that during the 2022/23 season and this will be something they are keen to continue this campaign - as Howe even admitted himself ahead of their clash with Arsenal. Asked about the ‘dark arts’ tag that his team were branded with that season, Howe responded that he would do ‘anything to win games ‘within the rules’.

“In part, it was over hyped and talked about more because we were in that position a lot that season.” Howe said. “This season we have not been in that [winning] position as often, so you end up being the reactive team trying to chase the game effectively.

“We don’t want to be in that position, we want to be the team in control. But certainly, doing whatever it takes to win, as long as it is within the rules, I’m a firm believer in that. 

“The ability we had to close out tight games that season was incredibly good. We managed games really well. 

“We had a different make up to the team, we had different characters and personalities than we do now. We perhaps had a little more experience in the group, and that can pay dividends.”