Confidence at Newcastle has been restored. Now to find consistency in a pivotal week

Brentford felt like a nadir and, for once, a despondent Eddie Howe struggled to control his emotions. A week on and, not only did Newcastle United deliver a timely performance and a much-needed victory against Leicester City, but Howe rediscovered his rare ability to strike the correct tone.

“I’m pleased, but I’m not high in the sense of getting carried away,” Howe said. “I’m very focused on Wednesday, on a repeat performance. After what I’ve seen this season, it’s very much back to work on Monday.”

Even following such an uplifting and dominant win, Newcastle’s baffling, up-and-down campaign demands such hesitancy. Premature predictions of renewal would be foolish and, as Howe continually stressed, Newcastle cannot allow one strong outing to be followed by another meek one.

Encouragingly, heading into what remains Newcastle’s most important game of the season against Brentford in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final — a tie that can prolong the dream that something tangible, a trophy, can be achieved in 2025 — confidence has been partly restored.

A third triumph in 12 league games and only their second top-flight victory on Tyneside since September represented small, but significant, steps forward.

“Fortress St James’” has been breached on an alarmingly frequent basis in 2024-25, but this felt like a flashback to the imperious home form of the previous two seasons.

Mercifully, Newcastle came up against a Leicester side whose setup under Ruud van Nistelrooy was as naive as their defensive performance was pitiful. The visitors’ perplexing openness is another reason why hasty conclusions cannot be drawn.

The matches when the onus has been on Newcastle to break down opponents have been their undoing.

Excluding the (slender) opening-day victory over Southampton, Newcastle had won just one of their seven matches against bottom-half sides (at Wolverhampton Wanderers), losing three, drawing three and averaging only 0.9 points per game.

Against top-10 teams, Newcastle’s record from seven games has been three wins, two draws and two defeats, with an average points return of 1.6.

In his programme notes, Bruno Guimaraes, Newcastle’s captain, addressed this theme. “We know what we’re capable of,” he wrote. “We know we have to improve and play better against teams outside of the ‘Big Six’.”

The exasperating drop-off in performance and results against sides they have been expected to overcome risked becoming a concerning, harmful trend. Last month’s 2-0 reversal against West Ham United, when Newcastle were overwhelming favourites, felt especially damaging and raised questions about the team’s mentality.

“We’ve had games here we’ve been expected to win and we haven’t performed in the manner we’d hoped,” Howe said after beating Leicester. “Even sometimes, in spite of winning, we haven’t been as dominant as I’d like. This was a perfect mix. But, again, it can’t be a one-off.”

Understandably, nervous energy was perceptible inside St James’ before kick-off and, within two minutes, Newcastle had given the ball away three times.

Had Leicester tried harder to frustrate Newcastle then anxiety might have forced more damaging errors. Instead, there were season highs for goals scored (four), expected goals (3.79) — xG measures the quality of opportunities — shots (27), efforts on target (11), touches in the opposition box (54) and “big chances” (five), which Opta defines as a situation where a player has a reasonable expectation of scoring.

This was also achieved despite Newcastle having more of the ball (59.4 per cent). Only two previous victories had been achieved with a greater possession share — at Nottingham Forest (56.3 per cent) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (51.5 per cent) — and this was the first time Newcastle have been successful in doing so at home.

While Leicester’s unwise approach aided Newcastle, there was also appreciable improvement in every aspect of the home side’s play.

Scoring the opener for only the sixth time this season certainly helped.

Even so, Jacob Murphy’s first goal did not arrive until the half-hour and came via a well-rehearsed corner move, following multiple missed open-play opportunities. A clever routine from a free kick also allowed Guimaraes to double Newcastle’s lead just two minutes after the break, and finally attacking set pieces are starting to come off, with only three dead-ball goals scored beforehand.

Hearteningly, there was a better balance to Newcastle’s approach and line-up.

Sandro Tonali was excellent, orchestrating moves from the base of midfield, while dovetailing and interchanging with Guimaraes. Essentially, they played hybrid/dual No 6 and No 8 roles, and were central to Newcastle’s offensive setup.

Murphy responded to jeers, following two poor misses, by scoring twice and repaying Howe’s faith. The 29-year-old can often frustrate with his execution and decision-making but he has played a part in four of Newcastle’s past six goals. Murphy and Guimaraes also opened their respective accounts for the season, raising the tally of goalscorers from a meagre five to a more respectable seven.

Lewis Hall, meanwhile, laid on two of Newcastle’s goals and was magnificent, marauding upfield and also coming inside as an inverted left-back. With Kieran Trippier less used recently, Hall’s creativity makes Newcastle’s left flank a frightening proposition. Anthony Gordon looked back to his relentless best, driving with possession at every opportunity, and his relationship with Hall is beginning to blossom.

Alexander Isak also scored for the third successive match, reaching 20 Premier League goals for 2024 — making him only the third Newcastle player after Alan Shearer (in 1999 and 2002) and Andy Cole (1994) to achieve that feat. The 25-year-old was electric, bamboozling Leicester defenders with his footwork, but he also failed to convert a one-on-one and underperformed his season-high xG of 1.42. There is still so much more to come from this potentially world-class talent.

After conceding seven goals in two games, there was also a first clean sheet in five, despite Martin Dubravka deputising for the injured Nick Pope. Leicester, though largely toothless, were restricted to only one shot on target.

Howe admitted he can merely “hope” Newcastle replicate this display against Brentford and at Ipswich on Saturday, rather than necessarily expect this to generate positive momentum, given everything that has gone before.

As Hall explained: “You can’t just turn up in a big game.”

Leicester cannot be another false start because there have been far too many. Newcastle began a potentially season-defining week of matches perfectly, but the biggest challenge of all for this team is ensuring they back it up.

(Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)