Liverpool won the Premier League in style as they crushed Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 at Anfield on Sunday afternoon to capture the title from Manchester City.
Arne Slot’s Reds sit 15 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with just four games to go making it mathematically impossible for Mikel Arteta’s Gunners to catch them – and one stat in particular related to Newcastle United based on the current standings may come as a surprise.
Two lengthy winning runs this season have seen Eddie Howe’s Mags bested only by Liverpool in one key stat as we continued our charge for Champions League football over the weekend with another three points over Ipswich Town.
Only 2024/25 Premier League Champions Liverpool have won more games this season than Eddie Howe’s Mags.
While Liverpool have racked up 25 victories so far, next comes Newcastle United on 19 wins; more than big six rivals Arsenal (18), Man City (18) and Chelsea (17) to name a few.
That is an unbelievable winning record when you consider the difficulties we have faced this season, none more sincere than the fact our squad wasn’t strengthened last summer after the departures of Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson.
Then, think about where we were in December before a grand effort from the lads saw us win nine on the spin to turn our season around while we were in dire straights, but it gets even more interesting when you look at the total run of form since early December.
Since our 3-3 draw with Liverpool on December 4th, we have remarkably not drawn a single of our 27 consecutive games in all competitions.
In that period, we have won a whopping 20 and lost just seven in our all or nothing mentality – but it got me thinking about a chat I had over a few beers recently.
I had a conversation with a Liverpool supporting friend in the pub last week who said, a few days after our defeat at Villa, that Newcastle’s problem is that if we want to become serious contenders for the league, that we need to set-up to have tighter games.
His thought process being that it would have been better to beat Manchester United, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa by a narrow margin, rather than win 4-1 and 5-0 while losing 4-1 over the span of a week.
The idea didn’t come from an air of arrogance, as Liverpool have proved this season they know what it takes to win after all. However, I do feel as though it lacked some key context – particularly being that by the time we had played Villa it was the seventh unchanged starting XI in a row including our midweek game.
He is right, in theory, but when you look at the Villa bench that day and what they were able to bring on it shows the worrying difference in squad depth between the two sides and the distance we may have to go to get to the next level.
I’m rambling a bit, but does my Red shirt wearing mate have a point – or is he failing to understand fully the situation that Newcastle have found themselves in with PSR?
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