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Stats which show why Newcastle United need fear no one in next season’s Premier League
Boy, am I looking forward to next season. This one has just been confined to history but I cannot wait to get the summer over and get back to football.
Mainly because of Newcastle United and their entry into the Champions League. What glorious nights lie ahead. We have been privileged to witness something extra special. The rebirth of a great club.
Newcastle finished the season with the least defeats in the Premier League (five) and the least goals conceded (33). They share those awesome records with Manchester City who won the championship for goodness sake. It means United need fear no one next season and will be feared themselves.
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The Champions League might be the ultimate test but why should the Magpies walk in fear when they matched the domestic records of City who are about to play in Europe’s biggest final against Inter Milan. If I was asked to pick the Player of the Season I would switch it to Men of the Year and select United’s back four plus Nick Pope for what they did collectively.
They were the foundation for what has been an unbelievable rise to the top. It is no fluke. You cannot fluke it over nine months and 38 games. This was deserved and is a warning to every other club in the country. When I said how much I am looking forward to the new season I added that was primarily because of what is in store for us with NUFC.
However there is a second lesser reason and it is personal: for the first time ever all four of my old clubs will be playing in the Premier League at the same time. United and Arsenal, naturally, but also Fulham and now Luton Town. How I love that!
Luton is a true fairytale. Only nine years ago I was their guest of honour when they played at Gateshead in the Conference non-league. Now they are about to face Newcastle in the PL!
Dear me, it is incredible. Luton won the play-offs while two much bigger clubs from the North East, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, failed in the sudden death deciders. Honestly, Kenilworth Road was dilapidated when I played there and that was 1969. One of the things Luton told me when I signed was that they were moving to a start-of-the-art new stadium and they are still saying that now 54 years later.
I have great affection for Luton and I am thrilled for them. They are a lovely homely club. They took more than 35,000 fans to Wembley for the play-off final against Coventry yet only 10,000 will be able to watch them in the PL because their ground is so small.
Honestly I cannot wait for the fixture list to come out because I want to see when Luton, Fulham and Arsenal are coming up to St James Park. Newcastle signed off on a high note denying Chelsea victory in front of their own fans. It meant they finished with only five league defeats which is quite stupendous and they achieved it with lots of players missing including a full midfield of Joelinton, Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff.
They was forced to put a winger Anthony Gordon and young Elliot Anderson in there and brought on 17-year-old Lewis Miley for his debut late in the game. Not one of them let the club down. I was delighted that Gordon got his first goal as it will have done him the world of good. He can be a different player next season.
