In Newcastle United's last three Premier League games the cumulative score is 11-0 as Eddie Howe has changed his misfiring Mags to ruthless destroyers.
The halfway point of the season is near and Newcastle have made hard work of it up until December when something has just clicked.
An exciting 3-3 draw with Liverpool started the month with promise but Brentford spoiled the party at the G-Tech Community Stadium with a 4-2 win, but that seemed to awaken the beast.
Since that Premier League loss to Brentford, Newcastle have won four games in a row scoring at least three goals in each - one of those games was a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Brentford where Newcastle got their revenge.
After Newcastle's 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Boxing Day, Anthony Gordon was asked what has changed lately with the winger telling The Mirror it's down to a 'mindset shift'.
“What has changed? We are not nearly men anymore, we have been winning! It is just a mindset shift. We got to the point where we had drawn the Palace game and should have won, we lost to Brentford quite poorly, then it was a case of asking how long we were going to continue missing these opportunities to get up the table. Everything is so tight.
“It was an impressive win over Villa. When you see that focus like against Villa we win games. We put teams on the back foot and thinking back to our Champions League season, we can score goals like that at any time.
"If we get an early goal teams have to come out and press us and that’s when we can do our stuff. The reaction has been unbelievable. We have got to keep going. On to the next game. Big games. We have to be relentless. Now it is about carrying home performances away from home. We don’t want inconsistency. We can do what we want.
“We started quite slow and missed opportunities. We are picking up form at the right time. Christmas is when the league starts to take shape. We are hitting form at the right time.”
Newcastle are now right back amongst the Champions League discussion after feeling like Europe was a write-off not so long ago.
There's a good chance that England will be granted an extra Champions League place this season so finishing fifth, which is the position Newcastle now occupy, could be enough to bag Champions League football next season.
It's just about keeping our foot on the gas now. We can hope for an addition or two in January, but right now it doesn't feel nearly as important as it did last month - although it is, we can't just keep ignoring the need for improvements because we hit form.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
23 | 35 | 56 |
2 |
Arsenal
|
24 | 27 | 50 |
3 |
Nottingham Forest
|
24 | 13 | 47 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
24 | 13 | 41 |
5 |
Newcastle United
|
24 | 13 | 41 |
6 |
Chelsea
|
23 | 15 | 40 |
7 |
Bournemouth
|
24 | 13 | 40 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
24 | -3 | 37 |
9 |
Fulham
|
24 | 4 | 36 |
10 |
Brighton
|
24 | -3 | 34 |
11 |
Brentford
|
24 | 0 | 31 |
12 |
Crystal Palace
|
24 | -2 | 30 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
24 | -6 | 29 |
14 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
24 | 11 | 27 |
15 |
West Ham United
|
23 | -16 | 27 |
16 |
Everton
|
23 | -5 | 26 |
17 |
Wolves
|
24 | -18 | 19 |
18 |
Leicester
|
24 | -28 | 17 |
19 |
Ipswich
|
24 | -27 | 16 |
20 |
Southampton
|
24 | -36 | 9 |