Eddie Howe incredible achievement – Have a look at this

Wednesday was the second anniversary of Eddie Howe taking over at Newcastle United.

On 8 November 2021, the club announcing the new Head Coach.

The new Newcastle United owners had been bullied by an incredible and laughable media campaign to not sack Steve Bruce immediately, to allow him a sentimental 1,000th match in football management.

He predictably lost that home game against Spurs and was simply embarrassing in his pre and post-match press conferences.

At last though after the defeat to Tottenham we were finally free of him, as he got his ill-gotten massive payout and we welcomed in Eddie Howe.

It is now two years and two days he has been in the job and Eddie Howe has had exactly two season’s worth, 76 matches, of Premier League action at Newcastle United.

To mark his second anniversary, the Planet Football site have done a comparison of how many points NUFC have picked up under Eddie Howe in these last 76 matches and compared those totals to the number of points achieved by our rivals.

The Planet Football report:

‘How would the table look if it began when Howe took over? Even including his slow start to life in the dugout at St. James’ Park, Newcastle have picked up more points than Manchester United and Chelsea.

We’ve taken a look at how the Premier League table would look if it began from when Newcastle announced Howe as their new manager two years ago.

Note: all teams have played 76 games, and we’ve only included the 14 sides that have remained in the top flight throughout Howe’s time in charge.

1. Manchester City – 186pts
2. Liverpool- 161pts
3. Arsenal – 157pts
4. Tottenham – 141pts
5. Newcastle United – 135pts
6. Manchester United – 134pts
7. Aston Villa – 118pts
8. Brighton – 114pts
9. Brentford – 109pts
10. Chelsea – 107pts
11. Crystal Palace – 93pts
12. Wolves – 88pts
13. West Ham – 87pts
14. Everton – 71pts

Where it gets even more interesting though, is if you give Eddie Howe nine Premier League matches to get his feet under the table at Newcastle United.

Which I would say is more than fair, considering the shambles he took over.

A shambles which we were to discover from numerous NUFC players after Eddie Howe arrived, was a Newcastle United squad that weren’t even anywhere near fit enough under Steve Bruce, that is how bad it was and helps explain why Newcastle were looking relegation certainties with Bruce in control.

So this is the comparison over the last 67 Premier League matches, for each of these selected clubs:

159 points – Man City

142 points – Arsenal

141 points – Liverpool

128 points – Newcastle United

121 points – Tottenham

119 points – Man U

105 points – Aston Villa

91 points – Chelsea

That is a simply incredible achievement by Eddie Howe, to turn around a total relegation heading shambles, into a Premier League top four club over an entire last 22 months period, astonishing.

So 128 points over 67 matches is an average of 1.91 points per Premier League match. Over a full season of 38 games that average works out at 72.6 points.

Have a look at the Premier League top four of recent seasons and see where that average of 72 points would have seen Newcastle United finish:

2018/19 – Man City 98, Liverpool 97, Chelsea 72, Tottenham 71

2019/20 – Liverpool 99, Man City 81, Man U 66, Chelsea 66

2020/21 – Man City 86, Man U 74, Liverpool 69, Chelsea 67

2021/22 – Man City 93, Liverpool 92, Chelsea 74, Tottenham 71

2022/23 – Man City 89, Arsenal 84, Man U 75, Newcastle United 71

Putting it simply.

Eddie Howe inherited a relegation level club and team, then within two months turned Newcastle United into a Champions League level top four club and has sustained that over these past 22 months.