Why this wont be Newcastle’s season:

Realistically, many others enjoyed watching Newcastle’s bolstering, unbeaten journey whilst it lasted, yet a collapse was much anticipated as the Toon hit a brick wall of fixtures consisting of Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea from which they took a single point. The Magpies’ following three games saw a 4-2 defeat in Norwich, a stalemate with Swansea and a 3-2 defeat away at West Brom. It came as a slap in the face for some fans; although it came as no shock for other members of the Newcastle faithful.

If you are to dissect why Newcastle stumbled at the first real hurdle, it soon seems obvious why.

Alan Pardew has a very confident, able dressing-room of players. On the other hand, much of the squad has been constructed in the last two years as Newcastle returned from a short dip in The Football League. The players should certainly take much credit from this fact then, given their current position in the table. This fact also explains why Newcastle were becoming expected to do more than they are capable of this season.

A lack of experience and success individually (as well as a team) goes a long way to explaining this. Newcastle’s bond as a team will have to strengthen if they are to seriously consider forcing their way into the greatly coveted top four.

Gradually, some of the Magpies’ players have begun to become less consistent and in turn, so have the performances. Undoubtedly, they are continuing to play good football; however it is not good enough to secure them a top four finish.

Take the recent North-East derby for example: you could argue that the Newcastle of earlier in the season would not have become caught up in Sunderland’s rather physical plan to put them off. As a result, it frustrated them so that the equaliser was scored in the dying moments of the game after an intense 90 minutes.

In fact, if you look at Newcastle’s results since their unbeaten run ended, there are several ups and downs; a 3-0 victory over the Red Devils was in January was well celebrated. However, 3 weeks later at Fulham the Magpies left Craven Cottage with no points due to a 5-2 defeat. Additionally, Tottenham were the second team to replicate the destroying of the black and white defence, winning 5-0 under a month later.

Despite the bumpy ride of late, the Toon army have nothing to worry about. The club’s usual football is attractive and exciting-they are certainly a much improved team. Alan Pardew has worked miracles at the Sports Direct Arena and therefore with experience, Newcastle can certainly learn how to become a serious threat in the long term and really challenge for that Champions League spot. For now, a European place will be an influential achievement proving how promoted teams can, with a bit of cash, turn expectations and predictions on their heads.

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