Opinion
Newcastle United have finished fifth in the Premier League.
High enough to qualify for a 2025/26 Champions League place.
The Premier League and La Liga having been awarded a bonus fifth place each in the top European competition.
Newcastle United only just finishing above the Champions League qualifying line.
Securing their position above sixth place Aston Villa who had a fourteen goals worse goal difference than Newcastle United.
A lot of nonsense talking about luck, good and bad, on the final day of the season.
I want you to consider this.
**This is how many points those who eventually finished top seven in the Premier League had, after their opening 15 games of this 2024/25 Premier League season:**
36 Liverpool
31 Chelsea
29 Arsenal
27 Manchester City
25 Nottingham Forest
25 Aston Villa
20 Newcastle United
**Then this is how many points those who eventually finished top seven in the Premier League, accumulated in their final 23 games of this 2024/25 Premier League season:**
48 Liverpool
46 Newcastle United
45 Arsenal
44 Manchester City
41 Aston Villa
40 Nottingham Forest
38 Chelsea
Over the course of 24 weeks and playing 23 Premier League matches between early December 2024 and late May 2025, Newcastle United accumulated 46 points at an average of 2.3 points per PL match, over a full season that average would equal 87 points. Liverpool won the Premier League this season with 84 points, Arsenal second with 74.
This is quite astonishing, as Eddie Howe has now gone two years since any new first team contenders were added to his squad back in summer 2023.
Early this season, Eddie Howe had to contend with the carry over of a number of injuries from last season, new injuries in pre-season of summer 2024, Tonali not able to play in the Premier League until September 2024, having had to sell two of his best young talents to Premier League rivals, Minteh and Anderson.
However, as shown above, even with such a small squad of players, Eddie Howe had those Premier League results these past 24 weeks,
On top of that, in that same time period, Newcastle United also won six of seven cup matches, including Arsenal home and away, plus Liverpool at Wembley.
Imagine if Newcastle United can keep this last 24 weeks form going into next season and have positive progressive transfer windows this summer?