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We thought Steve Bruce had been lucky at Newcastle United but this surpasses it all

3 years ago
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Steve Bruce hates it.

The Newcastle United Head Coach absolutely hating it when media and fans say he has been lucky during his time at St James Park.

Of course, plenty of people would say Steve Bruce was ridiculously lucky to get the NUFC job in the first place…but that’s another story.

The accusations have been that the underlying stats of how many points Newcastle United have deserved to pick up these past 19 months, have been massively exceeded due to the Brucey ‘luck’ factor.

So many matches where Newcastle deserved to be well beaten and yet somehow still picked up one or three points.

As I say above, Steve Bruce absolutely hates this cropping up, he has done badly enough in the job without needing fans and media to point out he has even been lucky to ‘achieve’ what he has so far.

You may have thought Steve Bruce had been lucky at Newcastle United but this surpasses it all…

After a thirteen match run with only one win, with eleven of those games in the Premier League, this is how the table currently looks on Thursday (4 February 2021).

It doesn’t exactly look great but picking up only five points from the past eleven matches, the outlook could surely have looked so much worse…and indeed it could.

This is how the Premier League looked last season (2019/20) after 22 matches played via this transfermarkt table:

At the top, Liverpool were up and away, 17 points clear after 22 matches.

However, just look at the bottom and compare it to this season.

Newcastle United currently have 22 points and the perception is that there isn’t a lot of pressure on Steve Bruce (despite one win in thirteen games in all competitions!) because his NUFC side are eight points clear of trouble.

However, this season has been a bit of a freak one at the bottom and if this had been last season, Steve Bruce’s current 22 points would see Newcastle only one point above third bottom and two points off second bottom.

The massive worry is that the likes of Mike Ashley, Lee Charnley and Steve Bruce himself, are all so complacent and are just taking it for granted that the bottom three are going to continue to struggle.

However, compare just how many points each of the bottom six have picked up in their last 11 Premier League matches:

14 points – Brighton

5 points – Newcastle United

16 points – Burnley

7 points – Fulham

6 points – West Brom

10 points – Sheffield United

Everybody has picked up more than Steve Bruce and Newcastle, the likes of Burnley and Brighton winning significantly more points.

We also have Fulham with only three defeats in their last ten matches, whilst Sheffield United have suddenly won three of their last five Premier League matches.

Steve Bruce is unbelievably lucky to still have this current eight point cushion, he needs to appreciate the fact and accept this abysmal thirteen game run of form (ten defeats, two draws, one win) can’t continue.

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