Eddie Howe comes out on top when most needed – My pick of the best | OneFootball

It’s a massive game at St James’ Park on Sunday, a high noon showdown, as Newcastle United entertain Chelsea in what is being billed as a Champions League six pointer.

If taking all three points, we’ll have made a huge advance in our objective of securing a place in Europe’s premier competition next season.

Over the years, Newcastle United fans have become predisposed to looking at things rather negatively.

Either because we were a poorly run football club with little or nothing in the way of ambition, or because when we did manage to get our act together, we fell short.

Since Eddie Howe’s arrival in the autumn of 2021, there have been some big games and whilst I could point to one or two disappointments (the League Cup Final of 2023 having been the most notable) Sir Edward has invariably come out on top when plotting and scheming to optimise the outcome.

Here’s a selection of my picks and this is why I’m backing wor Eddie to do a number on Enzo Maresca on Sunday.

8 February 2022 – Newcastle United 3 Everton 1

United went into this fixture second from bottom and even then, basement club Burnley had two games in hand. The initial euphoria post-takeover was slowly eroding and being replaced with a growing realisation that the new Newcastle United owners might need to drop into the Championship in order to rebuild.

Indeed, Eddie’s first ten games in the job had registered only one victory, a solitary goal defeat of Burnley, United’s first win of the season. His eleventh fixture at the helm brought victory at Elland Road thanks to a Jonjo Shelvey free kick and although there’d been an enforced break in between, because of our FA Cup exit at the hands of third tier Cambridge United, it was on the back of that crucial win against Leeds that Everton arrived at St James’ Park on this chilly February evening.

Despite going behind to a Jamaal Lascelles own goal, United responded within 108 seconds when Mason Holgate put the ball into his own net after a Lascelles header had crashed off the bar. Ryan Fraser put us in front before Kieran Trippier cemented his arrival at the club with a tremendous free-kick that made it 3-1. That win lifted Newcastle United out of the drop zone for the first time and we didn’t look back.

12 November 2022 – Newcastle United 1 Chelsea 0

What a difference a few months make.

United entertained tomorrow’s visitors on the back of a nine game unbeaten run which had propelled us to third in the table. This was the final game before a six week break because of FIFA’s decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar.

Whilst Chelsea were languishing in seventh place, this was still a significant scalp and a crucial win going into the break, United maintaining third position with the prospect of Champions League qualification no longer looking like a pipe dream. Miguel Almiron combined with Joe Willock on 67 minutes, whose exquisite shot from the edge of the box sailed past Edouard Mendy for the only goal of the game.

31 January 2023 – Newcastle United 2 Southampton 1

This was the League Cup semi-final second leg, with United a goal up from the first leg on the south coast a week earlier.

Any fear of United bottling it was quickly dispelled when Sean Longstaff scored twice in front of the Gallowgate end in a frenetic opening twenty minutes, and although the visitors pulled one back before the interval, 2-1 is how it ended as Doris Day played over the tannoy at the final whistle.

2 April 2023 – Newcastle United 2 Man Utd 0

Just thirty five days after suffering a cup final defeat at the hands of this lot, Eddie Howe’s infamous ‘Let’s f…… give it to them’ instruction spurred United to a comfortable 2-0 win at a raucous St James’ Park. Goals from Joe Willock and Calum Wilson secured all three points as United leapfrogged their visitors into third place that afternoon.

Like Sunday’s fixture, this was the proverbial six pointer, United sitting fourth in the table, three points above their visitors from North London.

With five consecutive victories, United’s form had more than picked up after the League Cup final, but a week before Tottenham arrived on Tyneside, Newcastle had suffered defeat away at Aston Villa, who were themselves in contention for a coveted top four finish.

Whilst many of those in attendance that afternoon might have been nervous in the run up to kick off, any anxiety proved totally unfounded as United literally blew Spurs away, racing into a five goal lead before 22 minutes had registered on the clock. This remarkable display that will live long in the memory saw United move up to third as the countdown to the season’s finale gathered momentum.

18 May 2023 – Newcastle United 4 Brighton 1

This was huge and I’ve chosen this fixture over the goalless draw with Leicester City that secured Champions League qualification four days later.

Although United sat third in the table ahead of this encounter against Roberto de Zerbi’s charges, we were only ahead of Man U on goal difference and only one point separated both ourselves and the Mancunians from Liverpool in fifth. In fact, the side United were hosting that evening sat in sixth and although they were eight points adrift, with a game in hand and the possibility of a win at St James’ Park, were not quite out of the race for the Champions League themselves.

Brighton have often frustrated Newcastle United since both clubs returned to the top flight. Not so on that evening in May 2023. Admittedly, there were a few jitters, even after an Undav own goal had put United ahead, but big Dan Burn’s headed goal in first half injury time against his former club gave the home side some much needed breathing space just before the break.

Undav redeemed himself in the 51st minute by reducing the arrears and United fought hard to protect their lead before late goals from Calum Wilson and Bruno Guimaraes all but sealed a top four spot. Guimaraes’ reaction to his goal that evening was a sight to behold, our Brazilian talisman climbing onto the advertising hoarding to lead the jubilant celebrations in the corner of the ground where the Gallowgate meets the West Stand.

5 February 2025 – Newcastle United 2 Arsenal 0

This was our second League Cup semi-final in the space of two years, the return leg against Mikel Arteta’s Gunners who United had comprehensively beaten by two goals to nil in the first leg at the Emirates a month earlier.

Despite being strong favourites to progress to Wembley, the doubts were still there as I walked up to the ground. I needn’t have worried, as another Eddie Howe masterclass unfolded and United repeated the scoreline achieved in North London.

The hapless Arsenal manager had complained about the ball used in the League Cup after the first leg (something that didn’t seem to have bothered him as they progressed to the last four) and a joyous chorus of ‘Mikel Arteta, it must be the ball’ echoed around St James’ Park as United registered an impressive 4-0 aggregate victory.

16 March 2025 – Liverpool 1 Newcastle United 2

We’ve written so much about the events of the 16 March 2025, so here goes something a little different.

‘On that glorious day in March,

Big Dan Burn got us off the mark.

When Alex Isak made it two,

The Scouser’s didn’t have a clue.

The Carabao cup sits on the shelf,

Eddie’s boys, they were immense.

Seventy years of misery,

And walking back down Wembley way,