Newcastle United’s record against the sides outside the top six was impressive: Eddie Howe’s side lost just one of those 28 encounters, and that was in the most difficult of those games, away to seventh-placed Aston Villa.
Not even treble winners Manchester City avoided defeat to the bottom two-thirds of the league as much as Newcastle: like cross-city rivals Manchester United, they lost three of their 28 league games against the sides from seventh down, while Arsenal lost two. But there is still room for improvement in the new season if the Magpies want to get closer to the top of the tree, especially at home, where they drew with five of the bottom half – including goalless stalemates against relegated Leicester and Leeds.
That’s not the main impediment standing in United’s way, however. Their record against the rest of the top six last season was respectable, with a point per game (won two, drew four, lost four) making them the seventh best-performing side in the division on that score.
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They can still take inspiration from a couple of sides who finished outside the Champions League places, however. Brighton and Hove Albion qualified for European competition for the first time in their history, and that was largely thanks to them coming second only to Man City in games against the rest of the top six: they won four, drew three and lost three.
Even more surprising are the Premier League’s third-best side against the top six: not Liverpool, not Arsenal, not Manchester United, but Thomas Frank’s Brentford, who took an impressive five wins and two draws from their 12 top-six encounters, more than making up for losing the other five – including both of their meetings with Newcastle. That gives Howe a clear point to make to his side when he’s preparing them to face the rest of the division’s top sides next season: if Brentford can do it, why can’t United?
Counter-intuitively, adopting a more adventurous approach may be to their benefit. Newcastle conceded the fewest goals per game against the top six in the division last season (just 12 in ten games), but scored at a pretty meagre rate of a goal per game. Brentford meanwhile racked up 18 goals in 12 games on their way to achieving their own impressive points tally; indeed, all the sides who did better than Newcastle against the big boys significantly outscored them in those games.
We know what an incisive side United can be on their day: they scored at least four goals in games against sixth-placed Brighton, seventh-placed Villa, eighth-placed Tottengham, ninth-placed Brentford, and tenth-placed Fulham. But they struggled to impose themselves against the rest of the top five, scoring just six goals in eight games against the sides directly around them – and half of those were in the home draw with Manchester City.
Getting the players to believe they can go and outscore even the best sides and giving them the licence to do so would not only be in the best traditions of the club; it might actually be their best course of action.
