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Newcastle United Premier League points totals after 10 games in Mike Ashley era – Amazing stat

6 years ago
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Newcastle United now have 14 points after 10 Premier League games.

A healthy return that most Newcastle fans would have happily settled for back in August, when the season kicked off.

Obviously it would have been nice to add to that total on Monday night but it wasn’t to be, so Rafa’s players head into Saturday’s clash with Bournemouth in ninth position.

How does this start compare though with the other eight Premier League seasons under Mike Ashley?

Maybe surprisingly, only three times have Newcastle had less than 14 points at this stage of the season in the Premier League, from the 2007/08 season onwards.

On one of those occasions (2014/15) it was only one less point, Newcastle having 13 points after 10 matches in what would turn out to be Alan Pardew’s last full season at St James Park.

Not surprisingly, the other two occasions were the relegation seasons – only 9 points from the first 30 in 2008/09 and 6 from 30 under Steve McClaren in 2015/16.

Image below courtesy of Chris Holt:

Taking the average number of points gained each season up to that 10 game point, below I have shown how many points that would have equalled if that average kept up over the season, then in brackets are the actual points totals we ended up with at the end of each season:

2007/08 – 65 points (43)

2008/09 – 34 points (34)

2010/11 – 53 points (46)

2011/12 – 84 points (65)

2012/13 – 53 points (41)

2013/14 – 53 points (49)

2014/15 – 49 points (39)

2015/16 – 23 points (37)

2017/18 – 53 points (??)

At this stage, Newcastle United are projected to end up with 53 points if keeping up this current rate, only once under Mike Ashley have Newcastle managed 50 points or better.

Absolutely shocking.

Ironically, the only season Newcastle have ended up with more points than their projected total after 10 matches, was the last relegation season. However, 12 of the eventual 37 points came in the final six matches under Rafa Benitez, his overall record was 13 points in the 10 games – which averages out at 49 points over a full season.

So why would Newcastle fade so often after starting reasonably well?

You once again have to look at the role of Mike Ashley in much of this –

In January 2011 he sold Andy Carroll and didn’t replace him.

In January 2013 he sold Demba Ba and didn’t replace him.

In January 2014 he sold Yohan Cabaye and didn’t replace him.

Can Rafa Benitez break the pattern and maintain the form so far, or even improve it?

Will Mike Ashley sell up, ambitious new owners come in and back Rafa in the January window?

You can’t help thinking that these two things are intrinsically linked.

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