Have we found the real Newcastle United so far this season? Probably not. If Eddie Howe's side have played at their full capacity this term, such efforts have been scattered among too many frustrating, incoherent results.
The Premier League provides the clearest illustration of this. Ten matches into the league campaign, the Magpies are 13th, with 12 points on the board. Sunday's defeat at West Ham United means they have gone seven months without a top-flight win on the road.
But they have also made a convincing start on their return to the Champions League, nine points from 12, while beating Mansfield Town and then Tottenham Hotspur to reach the last eight of the Carabao Cup, that title they won so emphatically last season.
Newcastle, too be sure, are a team carrying some burdens, but they responded in the right way against Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday evening, and now Howe has got to build on that positivity and fix his biggest problems.
How Howe can fix Newcastle's biggest problems?
Newcastle have been effective at St. James' Park this term; they have struggled on the road. There's something about Tyneside on a big night that draws the belief and quality and conviction from stars in black and white, and Dan Burn and co showed this against Bilbao this week.
Dan-Burn
However, for all Burn's tenacity and embodiment of 'The Howe Way' at Newcastle, he might be played out of the side in the coming weeks, with Lewis Hall returning from injury and making a positive impression off the bench. Content creator Geordie Josh claimed post-match that the rising star is a "generational left-back in the making".
By adding the 21-year-old, more athletic and progressive than his towering counterpart, Newcastle's left-hand side will become more dynamic and balanced. After all, Hall ranks among the top 16% of full-backs across Europe over the past year for passes attempted and progressive passes, as well as the top 9% for tackles won per 90 (data via FBref).
A pass is considered progressive if the distance between the starting point and the next touch is at least 10 meters closer to the opponent's goal or any completed pass into the penalty area.
Ultimately, Newcastle have to keep piecing the squad with talented players while retaining the all-important centre of Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes, the former of whom claimed another Man of the Match award on Wednesday, and is storming his way toward a clean sweep of individual accolades on Tyneside this term.
Newcastle have a strong spine, with Nick Woltemade the perfect frontal prosthetic to replace Alexander Isak after that summer of turmoil and divorce.
But there's one Howe mainstay who's letting his teammates down right now, and has been labelled Newcastle's new version of Gabriel Obertan after another disappointing performance.
Newcastle's new Gabriel Obertan
Newcastle have been alchemised into a force to be reckoned with over the past four years. Players like Obertan, fondly remembered though they are, no longer ply their trade at St. James' Park, who host a team of trophy winners and regular European contenders.
Gabriel Obertan for Newcastle
Gabriel Obertan for Newcastle
Obertan, once held in high regard by Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, joined Newcastle aged 22 for a shrewd £3m figure. Injuries had prohibited him. Across 77 appearances, he returned only three goals, assisting ten more.
Now, Anthony Gordon's below-level displays have led one prominent fan base to suggest that Obertan's spirit lives on. Indeed, the Three Lions star was said to have entered "Gabriel Obertan territory" after the loss at West Ham, having gone 21 Premier League matches without a goal and 19 without making an assist.
For a leading winger with such blistering pace and dangerous dribbling, this isn't good enough. After all, Liverpool have been linked with a swoop for their one-time academy member since 2024, and the price tag mooted has reached £100m.
Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon
Gordon, 24, can look like a brilliant, unplayable talent, a "nightmare for anyone" he comes up against, by his own admission. But, equally, he isn't hitting the same levels of fluency and sharpness as 2023/24, when he was so easily handed the club's Player of the Year award after coming into his own and reaching double digits for goals and assists.
That Premier League season threatens to be an outlier if he not rekindle his form in the final third. Isak's departure will have hampered him some, but more is needed, especially as he's yet to break his domestic duck this year despite missing three big chances (as per Sofascore).
Anthony Gordon's Premier League Career
Season
25/26 (NUFC)
24/25 (NUFC)
23/24 (NUFC)
22/23 (NUFC)
22/23 (EFC)
21/22 (EFC)
20/21 (EFC)
19/20 (EFC)
Data via Sofascore
Gordon joined Newcastle from Everton for £45m in January 2023. He was young and raw but with bundles of potential, and he's now one of the biggest names in English football, one of Howe's leading forwards.
But he's toiling through the current campaign, and now faces a potential layoff after such exciting previous revelations regarding the depth and breadth of his skillset.
Instances such as the red card against Liverpool won't have helped matters, and neither will his recent showing against Bilbao, branded with a 5/10 match rating by the Chronicle Live before being taken off with a suspected recurrence of a hip injury. They said he 'never looked right'.
What to do with a high-profile and high-quality star who is consistently flattering to deceive? A talisman, of sorts, magnified in importance after the summer's tumultuous events.
Gordon is not a newcomer at Newcastle. He is an elite member of Howe's title-winning squad. More is needed lest he fall into obscurity and find more heads nodding in agreement at the claims that he is morphing into the Toon's new version of Obertan.