Newcastle United simply must make St James’ Park a fortress again after failing to score for the second time in our last three Premier League home games, with some worrying stats emerging on our lack of goals so far this season.
Newcastle sit eighth in the home form table so far this season, which doesn’t sound like a major cause for concern, but with just five goals in six games at St James’, something clearly just isn’t clicking at the minute.
Last season, we averaged over 2.5 goals a game at home as we went on to break our Premier League record for goals scored in a Premier League season, but in our six home games so far this season we’re averaging less than a goal a game.
Defensively, we are still very solid at St James’ Park, with only Liverpool (3) conceding fewer goals than our five so far. But without that spark up front – highlighted by zero shots on target in the second half of Monday’s 2-0 defeat to West Ham – we will struggle to frighten opposition sides arriving on Tyneside.
### Premier League table based on home results only
1. Newcastle 1-0 Southampton (Joelinton)
2. Newcastle 2-1 Spurs (Barnes, Isak)
3. Newcastle 1-1 Man City (Gordon penalty)
4. Newcastle 0-1 Brighton
5. Newcastle 1-0 Arsenal (Isak)
6. Newcastle 0-2 West Ham
St James’ Park has played a huge role over the years in helping us secure some big results – we’ve made a habit of beating ‘big six’ sides and battered PSG in last season’s Champions League thriller – and we have to try to find a way to replicate that after drawing blanks in recent home defeats to Brighton and West Ham.
It’s one thing getting up for the big games and fighting for every ball when everything is stacked against you, but the players must learn how to adjust when there’s a level of expectation like there was on Monday night.
Things on the pitch felt a little stale and we certainly looked out of ideas in that second half, so Eddie Howe has a huge task on his hand to come up with a answer to these lower blocks and should have ample opportunity to solve the problem this weekend against Crystal Palace.