St James’ Park incredible stats and Chelsea demise – The Eddie Howe Newcastle United story

Two years ago exactly today at St James’ Park, Eddie Howe took charge of his very first Newcastle United home match.

It was of course his first NUFC game of any kind.

As it happens, Eddie Howe wasn’t actually inside St James’ Park on 20 November 2021, a case of Covid meant he managed this one from his hotel room, with Jason Tindall the man patrolling the touchline.

Two years ago today, the new Newcastle United Head Coach got a good idea of what he had taken on. A 3-3 draw with Brentford showing there was undoubtedly a better team than had been apparent under Steve Bruce that season, whilst two of the three goals conceded were really poor gifts that thwarted an opening day win for the new NUFC boss.

Graeme Jones of course had been the temporary man in charge to try and steady the ship ahead of the new owners appointing Bruce’s replacement. The Geordie caretaker did a decent job with disciplined draws away at Palace and Brighton.

However, the one home match Jones was in charge of before Howe’s arrival, was ironically the visit of Chelsea. They arrived at St James’ Park top of the table and they left with that position reinforced, a 3-0 victory for the visitors as they absolutely dominated.

It is obviously a very interesting tale of what has happened to Chelsea since their 3-0 win at St James’ Park on 30 October 2021… but I am more interested in the Eddie Howe and Newcastle United story, especially at St James’ Park.

These are the entire two year stats of Eddie Howe, matches played at St James’ Park in the Premier League:

2021/22

Played 14 Won 8 Drawn 4 Lost 2 Goals For 19 Goals Against 14

2022/23

Played 19 Won 11 Drawn 6 Lost 2 Goals For 36 Goals Against 14

2023/24

Played 6 Won 5 Drawn 0 Lost 1 Goals For 14 Goals Against 3

Total Eddie Howe PL record at St James’ Park:

Played 39 Won 24 Drawn 10 Lost 5 Goals For 69 Goals Against 31

A total of 82 points accumulated in these 39 Eddie Howe SJP matches, at an average of 2.10 points per game.

The only Premier League matches that Eddie Howe has lost at St James’ Park:

19 December 2021 – Newcastle 0 Man City 4

30 April 2022 – Newcastle 0 Liverpool 1

18 February 2023 – Newcastle 0 Liverpool 2

7 May 2023 – Newcastle 0 Arsenal 2

27 August 2023 – Newcastle 1 Liverpool 2

Leaving this bizarre Liverpool hoodoo aside, where we always seem to find a way to lose to them. It is absolutely mad that under Eddie Howe, Newcastle United have only lost two other PL matches at St James’ Park, one against all conquering Man City less than a month after Howe’s first game in charge, then that unlucky one against Arsenal who were title challengers six months ago in early May.

At St James’ Park under Eddie Howe, Newcastle United are very difficult to beat, with actually a win record of just a fraction under 62%. Pretty much winning on average two of every three PL matches at St James’ Park, no matter who the opposition (unless Liverpool…).