Benitez calls for calm as off-key Toon face minor crisis with Gunners loss
THE statistics are damning: Newcastle United have played five games this season, losing four and drawing one.
They sit in the bottom three, having now lost three consecutive home games to officially equal their worst ever start to a Premier League campaign. All in all, it is their slowest start to a new season since 1988–89, when they finished last and were relegated to the Second Division.
It is rather ironic, then, that Newcastle actually made a very bright start against Arsenal on Saturday. However, they failed to take their chances and St James’ Park fell deathly flat as Granit Xhaka and Mesut Ozil struck early in the second-half. It ended up developing into yet another difficult day for the club, the plummeting atmosphere worsened by the return of protests against Mike Ashley, both outside the ground and in the stands.
Ciaran Clark did head home a late consolation, but by that point there weren’t many Geordies left in the stadium to see it. There was no time left to press for an equaliser and the final whistle confirmed Newcastle’s fourth 2-1 defeat of the season.
Sentiment
Given the fresh wave of anti-Ashley sentiment, it would have been easy for the increasingly beleaguered Rafael Benitez to twist the knife after the loss.
After all, relations between the two men are at an all-time low, with Benitez especially vocal this summer in his criticism of Ashley’s reluctance to back his judgement during a transfer window in which Newcastle made a profit of more than £20m.
For now, though, Benitez is attempting to remain positive and he was keen to stress that the club’s current struggles have been exacerbated by the cruel hand dealt to them by the Premier League’s fixture computer.
Newcastle have started their season with four of their five games against the ‘big six’ clubs – Spurs, Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal – and have at least remained within touching distance in all their losses.
“Of course it is a little bit disappointing when you are so close in some games and you cannot get what you want, but the reality is that we’ve played four of the top six sides in the league,” he stressed.
“And to be where we are may not be a surprise for a lot of people. But for us we know it’s difficult, but we still have to carry on.
“You have to have the belief and the confidence to think you can get something from those games – that is the point. And so the disappointment is because we were so close, against Tottenham and even Chelsea, so we have to manage those situations a little better. But we will be a better team and get points against other teams.”
The problem is Newcastle’s challenging run of fixtures does not really begin to ease up until the tailend of next month. Next weekend’s trip to a Wilfried Zaha inspired Crystal Palace will be difficult, before two more games against teams that finished above them in the league last season, Leicester and Manchester United.
It is understandable, then, that Benitez will not be scrutinising the Premier League table in any great detail for the next couple of weeks.
“I will keep an eye (on the table), but I will not spend too much time looking at it,” he said. “Because I knew that it could be like that, so it’s a question of making sure that everybody understands that, and then we have to move forward quickly, and mentally we have to approach the next training session thinking, okay, we need to improve this, this and that.”
For now, Benitez is more concerned with rallying both his players and the club’s supporters. Newcastle are never too far away from lurching into their next crisis period and even a manager with his decorated CV knows he has to work hard to prevent pessimism from crippling the club.
“It is very clear,” he added. “We are Newcastle ‘United’. When we are united we are stronger and it’s just the only way for us.
“And I think the fans realise why we are where we are and then our position. So I don’t think the players have to be worried about pressure, because the fans have been really good. They are clever enough to know the best way possible to go forward is to continue supporting the team, and if the players work hard like in the first-half that’s something the fans will appreciate.” (© Independent News Service)