At the time of writing this (Sunday morning), Newcastle find themselves as one of only three clubs yet to concede a goal in the Premier League.
Granted it’s only game week two, but the fact that only league leaders Manchester City and title hopefuls Chelsea are yet to concede alongside Newcastle shows how well-drilled Eddie Howe has got our defence compared to last season.
Chelsea kick off at 4:30 today against Tottenham who put four past Southampton last week, so it’s unlikely they will end the day with a clean sheet, leaving just Newcastle and Man City with that honour.
Newcastle’s new-look defence contains no players who were a part of last season’s abysmal start, but even when those players have played under Eddie Howe, they’ve looked a lot more competent, even Jamaal Lascelles has raised his game slightly – he’s still not good enough, but he’s better than he was.
Yesterday’s game against Brighton showed how difficult we are going to be to break down this season. The team’s overall performance was poor, but the back line and Nick Pope weren’t going to let that stop them from keeping a clean sheet. I somehow completely overlooked Nick Pope’s performance in my match review yesterday, and while I stand by giving Dan Burn my Man Of The Match, Nick Pope certainly wasn’t far behind.
Next week will obviously be our biggest test to date when free-scoring Man City come to town. Keeping the likes of Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden quiet is a whole different challenge but for the first time in years, I have faith in our defence to do what is needed.
THINK YOU KNOW NEWCASTLE UNITED? TAKE OUR SQUAD NUMBER QUIZ AND TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
[freshpress-quiz id=”17418″