Comparing Eddie Howe’s start at Newcastle with other recent appointments

Defeat to Leicester extended a poor start for Newcastle’s new manager Eddie Howe.

The ex-Bournemouth boss was appointed by the club’s new Saudi-backed owners but has been unable to turn around their results and here, the PA news agency looks at how he compares to other recent managerial appointments.

Howe’s results so far

The new boss actually missed his first game in the dugout after testing positive for Covid-19, but was in contact with assistant Jason Tindall from his hotel as they twice came from behind to draw 3-3 with Brentford.

A 2-0 defeat to Arsenal followed before a 1-1 draw with Norwich, having played most of that game with 10 men after Ciaran Clark’s early red card.

Callum Wilson’s second goal in successive games finally earned Howe his first win, 1-0 over Burnley at St James’ Park, but Sunday’s 4-0 loss to Leicester underlined the problems facing him.

Pattern continues on Tyneside

Howe is the fifth successive Magpies manager to start with one win in his opening five games in charge, stretching all the way back to the temporary appointment of John Carver in January 2015.

Carver began with a draw against Burnley while deputising amid Alan Pardew’s contract dispute and then, after Pardew’s exit, lost to Leicester, Chelsea and Southampton before a 3-0 win over Hull.

He was replaced at the end of the season by Steve McClaren, whose only win in his first five games came in the League Cup against League Two Northampton though he did manage draws with Southampton and Manchester United.

The respective reputations of Rafael Benitez and Steve Bruce, at least in the eyes of the Tyneside fanbase, may have headed in opposite directions but their starts with the club were also strikingly similar.

Benitez took until his fifth game to get a win on the board, one more than Howe, as his side drew 1-1 at home to arch-rivals Sunderland and lost away to Leicester, Norwich and Southampton before beating Swansea 3-0.

Bruce lost to Arsenal and Norwich before getting off the mark at the third attempt with a 1-0 win at Tottenham. Draws with Leicester, in the League Cup, and Watford followed – his early record of one win, two draws and two losses matches Howe.

Time for a turn-around

Howe’s record through five games is as bad as any of this season’s managerial appointments in the Premier League – though curiously, the best of that selection have proved to be false dawns.

That includes Benitez, who opened with four wins and a draw as Everton scored 12 goals in his first five games. Results have since taken a downturn, though, and the former Liverpool man is under pressure from the blue side of Stanley Park.

Nuno Espirito Santo also won four of his first five but has already been sacked by Tottenham, with his successor Antonio Conte starting with three wins, a draw and a loss before snow and coronavirus decimated their recent fixtures.

Howe’s record was matched by Patrick Vieira, who has since lifted Crystal Palace into mid-table, and Dean Smith at Newcastle’s relegation rivals Norwich.

Steven Gerrard has three wins from five since succeeding Smith at Aston Villa, while both Nuno’s Wolves successor Bruno Lage and Watford’s Claudio Ranieri started with two wins and three losses. The Hornets’ entertaining run saw them lose 5-0 to Liverpool but win 5-2 against Everton and 4-1 against Manchester United.

The latter result ended Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Old Trafford reign and after Michael Carrick took caretaker charge, interim appointment Ralf Rangnick has only overseen three games so far with two wins and a draw to show for it.