It’s amazing how ten minutes or one goal can totally change your outlook as a football fan.
After beating Manchester United and then 2-0 up at Bournemouth with ten minutes to play, I had no doubt were heading to safety. Our late collapse to only take a point isn’t the first time this season we have thrown away leads late in the game; let’s hope we don’t rue them come May.
The draw leaves us on 29 points with ten games to play and just two points from the relegation zone. With that in mind, here’s a look into what’s been required to stay up over recent seasons.
What history says
We all know the magic 40 point rule but often you don’t need that to stay up. If we analyse what was needed to stay up over the last ten years you can, on average, say that 37/38 points would do it. We do have the advantage of a better goal difference against most of the teams down there with us at the moment – and that could prove crucial.
| Season | 17th placed team | Points to stay up |
| 2016/7 | Watford | 40 |
| 2015/6 | Sunderland | 39 |
| 2014/5 | Aston Villa | 38 |
| 2013/4 | West Brom | 36 |
| 2012/3 | Sunderland | 39 |
| 2011/2 | QPR | 37 |
| 2010/1 | Wolves | 40 |
| 2009/0 | West Ham | 35 |
| 2008/9 | Hull | 35 |
| 2007/8 | Fulham | 36 |
| AVERAGE | – | 37.5 |
What you say
The Chronicle have a handy Premier League predictor tool where you can predict our remaining games and those of our rivals so can predict the final table come May. Where do you think we will finish? Use the link below to find out for yourself…
Take the relegation predictor here. How have today's results changed things for #nufc? https://t.co/kNq4ujLN83
— The Chronicle (@ChronicleNUFC) February 24, 2018
What we say
It is always incredibly difficult to predict Newcastle, we all know that. I had a go at looking at our remaining games and have us to pick up 10 points, putting us on 39 in total with a good goal difference. I would hope this would see us over the line and in the table below I have tried to predict our games.
Knowing Newcastle though, we may pick up points at home to the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea but lose to West Brom; but 10 points from those games would stack up to us accruing a point game, which is what we have done all season.
| Home/Away | Team | Points |
| A | Liverpool | 0 |
| H | Southampton | 1 |
| A | Tottenham | 0 |
| H | Huddersfield | 3 |
| A | Leicester | 1 |
| H | Arsenal | 0 |
| A | Everton | 1 |
| H | West Brom | 3 |
| A | Watford | 1 |
| H | Chelsea | 0 |
| – | – | 10 |
How are you feeling for the run in? Where do you think we will finish?
Thanks Simon, I would of felt a whole lot better had we beaten Bournemouth .
thinking 38 points
kimtoon(Quote)
You went the long way around to arrive at the prediction of about a point a game which is what we have so far 🙂 Glad you showed that usually a team doesn’t always need 40 points to stay up because I am not sure we will get there.
You gave us zero points against **** and Chelsea but we may buck history there. Of course you are right in predicting we will not get maximum points from Huddersfield, Southampton and West Brom.
Everton is winnable.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It’s coming down to Injurys now and there not looking to good at the moment we are down to the bones Ime hoping Rafa can pull a rabbit out of the hat,but no goal scorer midfield looking sick looking dim at the moment imo
Icedog(Quote)
I think we can get 4 points out of the next 3 games.
funrafa(Quote)
Your stats are incorrect. 2016/17 Watford didn’t need 40 points to stay up. They were 17th, and got 40 points, with goal difference -28. However, 18th and relegated was Hull with only 34 points and a -43 goal difference. So, in fact 34 points with a better GD might have stayed up, 35 points to be certain. Though of course, not if some of those 5 extra points came in 6-pointers against Hull.
2010-11 Huĺl were 17th with 40 points, GD -20. Birmingham and Blackpool were relegated on 39 points, with very similar GDs. So that time 40 points was genuinely required.
2014-15 we went down in 18th with 37 points GD -21. Sunderland had 39 points GD -14. They could have probably stayed up with 37 points. That probably would have taken the decision to the last game of the season, but with the pressure all on us, I doubt we would have hammered Spurs. Our poor GD was always a big factor in the run in.
If you have repeated the same mistake as assuming that the points total for 17th was always required for other seasons (not checked) then the average to stay up would be lower. Probably it is 35-36 points.
potski(Quote)
We needed the win at the weekend, however as we didn’t I agree with your 38 pts tally.
We need a win against Saints to start with. They are struggling and down there with us. It’s a home fixture and a very winnable game.
Thereafter we have to be looking at Huddersfield, WBA and Watford.
But our record against relegation rivals isn’t great this season, so 3 unexpected points against one of the others would certainly ease the worry.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I was going to bring up that point about what you would have needed to stay up and what 17th and 18th actually got and am glad you did.
I have said on here a few times that this mythical and mystical 40 point number doesn’t actually come into the reckoning most years.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Also, you have to be careful about averages. Today in Chicago it is 50 degrees. Given the vagaries of the weather here it could be minus 50 degrees tomorrow. Average temperature zero, but I would probably freeze to death if I was out for more than a couple of hours tomorrow.
So, if we get 35-36 points there is still a good chance we could be relegated because teams like Hull on 34 skew the numbers.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
i have them at 37, should be enough this season.
zack(Quote)
Toon “LEGEND” Fat Boy Quinn has finally figured out that Pardew is ****:
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/alan-pardews-managerial-career-going-14344150
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think we’ll get 10-12 points and stay up somewhat comfortably. I haven’t written the Chelsea or Arsenal games off as pointless. We might even win one.
georgio(Quote)
Espanyol beat Real Madrid so anything is possible.
Hell, I want WBA to beat Watford just to prolong their agony a bit longer. Normally I wouldn’t want to inflict Arrogant Alan on anybody but I sort of want to hear his boasts if they win.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We might have caught a break. Palace have about half their team injured and Mr. Roy doesn’t do well under pressure. Their next games are:
Man U home
Chelsea away
Huddersfield away
Liverpool home
Can see them being 2nd bottom with 6 games left.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Can you really see a half strength Palace getting a win out of any of those games? Cabaye is out, but most importantly so is Zaha.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
think they really miss Ruban Cheeke most of all after Zaha he held their m/f
icedog(Quote)
VAR? wrong.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
This VAR is a pain in the ****. How can that be a penalty when the foul started outside the area? You can give a foul but you give the foul when it started FFS.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So, if you do a stutter-step they can rule out a penalty!!!!
I am talking about the Spurs game.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Warren Barton just made a great point about VAR and this Spurs game. He said that VAR reversals are for “clear and obvious” mistakes. If it is taking 4 minutes to review a call, then it is not “clear and obvious”, sort of by definition!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I hate snow .
kimtoon(Quote)
This is true, but their final 5/6 games are very very winnable and I’d bank on Zaha inspiring them to victory in several of those when he’s back.
I agree though, upcoming fixtures will probably put them in trouble..
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
NEW THREAD
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2018/03/01/nufc-in-march-a-key-month-for-the-magpies/
Simon’s preview of NUFC’s fixtures in March
Liverpool preview will be up on Saturday morning
Olly Hawkins(Quote)