NEWCASTLE: Newcastle United’s mid-season trip to Saudi Arabia was the turning point in the Magpies’ Premier League season, according to head coach Eddie Howe.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s visit of Crystal Palace to St. James’ Park, Howe pinpointed the winter warm weather camp in Jeddah in January as the catalyst to Newcastle’s end-of-season revival.
The Magpies had only just won their second game of the season prior to jetting to the Middle East — a 1-0 triumph at Leeds United — but since then, they have claimed seven victories in their last 11, including a last gasp 2-1 win against Leicester City on Sunday.
“Yeah, difficult at the time to see it at the time, but looking back that was a turning point for us,” Howe said of the Saudi visit. “We went to Saudi Arabia, which was a brilliant trip for the group and we came back in a much better place, united and ready to start the fight to stay in the division.
“To get that positive result before we left, to keep a clean sheet away from home and the performance was a good one, that was a massive, massive result for us that led to the good run of form since.”
Newcastle left 2021 nestled in the Premier League’s bottom three — and to many their season looked doomed.
No team in the history of the Premier League has ever retained their top flight status having not won any of their opening 14 games — at least, until Howe turned the tables at Newcastle.
Having just been beaten at Liverpool, then hammered on home turf by Manchester City, things looked bleak with the January transfer window around the corner. A draw with Manchester United on Dec. 27 did soften things slightly, even though that point was not enough to see the Magpies get their heads above water in the top flight.
A positive window was seemingly shattered again when even newly-arrived England international Kieran Trippier could not inspire his new side to a routine win over League One Cambridge United in the FA Cup.
Reflecting back on that time of the season, Howe said: “It’s difficult when you are in it to be worried. I don’t think worry was the emotion, but I knew it was going to be a really difficult challenge.
“We had obstacles in front of us. The transfer window was a really important thing for us to navigate properly while also playing some key games.
“It was really difficult, we knew how tough it was and we thought it could easily go down to the last game of the season (away to Burnley).
“We are still in that moment where we don’t know what is going to happen, but yeah, the transfer window was always going to be key, also getting the best out of the players we had, to give them some confidence so they went on to the pitch thinking they were going to win.”
Meanwhile, concerns are rising about the injury suffered by Ryan Fraser in the 1-0 win over Wolves.
The Scotland international has an issue with his hamstring, which forced him to miss the Leicester City victory — and fears are his season could be over.
“I think with Ryan the plan is to have another scan this week, I’m not sure on the day, to see where it is.
“We had an initial scan and had two conflicting opinions, so we’re re-scanning,” Howe said.
Elsewhere on the injury front, Newcastle will again be without key duo Trippier and Callum Wilson, still the club’s top scorer despite being out injured since Dec. 27.
Howe said: “Yeah, they’re still on track. Nothing’s changed in the last couple of days. Hopefully, they’ll play again this season.”