The misleading Newcastle United narrative which tells only part of the story under Eddie Howe

Twelve months ago, Newcastle United were 19th in the Premier League – and it was feared on Tyneside that the takeover, and appointment of Eddie Howe, may have come too late to keep the club up.

A year on, so much has changed – on and off the pitch.

And the 2022 Premier League table is particularly revealing.

Champions Manchester City and level on points, 79, with Liverpool, last season’s runners-up. Arsenal, this season’s league leaders, are third with 77 points.

Newcastle, remarkably, are fourth with 72 points. They’re ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Chelsea in the 2022 table – and that’s quite a feat given where they were a year ago.

And the transformation isn’t just down to money, even if that is the narrative believed by some outside the region.

The club’s new owners have spent more than £200million, so far, on players, and that investment, undoubtedly, has been significant. It’s brought the likes if Bruno Guimaraes, Sven Botman and Kieran Trippier to the club, which was finally sold by Mike Ashley in late 2021 for £305million.

Yet the third-placed club’s success is as much down to coaching and culture as cold, hard cash.

Howe has given the team a badly-needed identity on the pitch – and transformed the culture behind the scenes.

Newcastle play a high-intensity, attacking game under Howe. They press from the front, and move the ball with pace and purpose. They attack and defend as a team, and the club, which has only conceded 11 goals, has the best defensive record in the Premier League.

As such, fans turned up for yesterday’s New Year’s Eve game against relegation-threatened Leeds United hopeful of a seventh successive league victory.

But it wasn’t to be. A memorable year ended with a forgettable goalless draw at a sodden St James’s Park, which is being steadily refurbished after years of neglect.

Newcastle dominated a niggly and stop-start game in front of another sell-out crowd, but they couldn’t put the ball in the net.

“It’s important the players keep that perspective as well, because there’s absolutely no need for any negativity internally from me to the players, from the players to each other,” said Howe.

“They’ve given everything, tough conditions, tough opponent. We’ve created the chances, and sometimes football works that way, you just can’t (score) for whatever reason.

“When you’re free-flowing – and we have been previously – suddenly one week you look like you can’t score.

“The most important thing is we didn’t lose the game in trying to chase it, and trying to win it, and the players’ commitment was there for everyone to see.”

That commitment has been evident week in, week out during a challenging year. Of course, there are bigger challenges ahead, but the foundations that Howe and the club’s owners have put in place look to be solid.

"2022 has been a great year," Howe said. "The team’s developed really well.

"We’ve had some great results. There are big challenges ahead, but we look forward to those."

The hope on Tyneside is that 2023 can be an even better year.