Newcastle United lost to Brentford on Saturday.
The match at St James’ Park saw Eddie Howe’s side take the lead through a Sven Botman header from a corner.
Only for then Brentford to hit back and end up leading 2-1 at the break.
Bruno Guimaraes both won and scored a penalty to level at 2-2.
Only for Brentford to hit a late winner.
Not surprisingly, a lot of debate after the game as to why United lost this match.
However, a key underlying reason has emerged that help explain this Newcastle United defeat to Brentford.
In not a single one of Newcastle’s most recent Premier League matches, had the opposition team collectively ran further than the United players.
Yet that happened on Saturday, Brentford outrunning Newcastle United.
Indeed, in the last 21 Premier League matches, only four times did the opposition run more than Newcastle United. Actually, two of the four have been against Brentford, although the away defeat saw United playing for a lengthy period with ten men, after Dan Burn was red carded, which obviously would have impacted on those stats.
However, on Saturday, there were no red cards.
When you look at Saturday’s match, the total distances were – Newcastle United players 119.02km and Brentford players 119.79km. These are the highest of any of the 21 NUFC games, apart from the 4-3 Leeds match.
So there was no shortage of running and effort from Newcastle United players, simply a case of the Brentford players running even further.
Obviously a lot of other factors can be pointed to in any game. However, you have to also accept that it is an advantage for the opposition when they have a full week of rest, recovery and preparation, whilst Newcastle players are playing every midweek. Especially the tough recent schedule, which has seen three brutal away challenges in the space of a week away at PSG, Liverpool and Man City.
The reasons as to why Newcastle United lost to Brentford, it certainly wasn’t a lack of effort.
These are the last twenty-one Newcastle United matches in the Premier League and the distances covered in total by each team (all stats via BBC Sport):
Newcastle United players 119.02km and Brentford players 119.79km
Newcastle United players 113.42km and Liverpool players 107.68km
Newcastle United players 118.85km and Aston Villa players 118.49km
Newcastle United players 113.66km and Wolves players 111.57km
Newcastle United players 123.99km and Leeds players 123.99km
Newcastle United players 112.70km and Palace players 111.78km
Newcastle United players 111.14km and Burnley players 109.81km
Newcastle United players 116.83km and Man U players 113.10km
Newcastle United players 116.91km and Chelsea players 108.91km
Newcastle United players 109.91km and Sunderland players 106.52km
Newcastle United players 114.04km and Burnley players 108.91km
Newcastle United players 112.30km and Spurs players 110.05km
Newcastle United players 116.39km and Everton players 111.74km
Newcastle United players 112.40km and Manchester City players 113.64km
Newcastle United players 111.01km and Brentford players 114.13km
Newcastle United players 116.85km and West Ham players 114.08km
Newcastle United players 114.50km and Fulham players 110.21km
Newcastle United players 115.16km and Brighton players 113.59km
Newcastle United players 109.45km and Forest players 106.43km
Newcastle United players 112.94km and Arsenal players 115.08km
Newcastle United players 113.23km and Bournemouth players 109.03km
Newcastle United players now need to pick themselves up and prepare for Tottenham on Tuesday night.