Newcastle and the unpredictable opening fixture.
Posted on August 12th, 2010 | 99 Comments |
It’s been 38 years since our last league win at Old Trafford, and I don’t see that run coming to an end this season. You never know though I suppose, stranger things have happened at sea and all that.
Anyway, Manchester United away is probably the toughest away fixture out there to be honest. It isn’t often they lose at home, but they have picked up a reputation for being slow starters to the league campaign. That is a bit of a myth in fairness, but I’ll go into that a bit later. First, lets take a look at how Newcastle United tend to kick-off the new season.
2000 – Away – Man Utd – Lost 2-0.
2001 – Away – Chelsea – Drew 1-1.
2002 – Home – West Ham – Won 4-0.
2003 – Away – Leeds – Drew 2-2.
2004 – Away – Middlesbrough – Drew 2-2.
2005 – Away – Arsenal – Lost 2-0.
2006 – Home – Wigan – Won 2-1.
2007 – Away – Bolton – Won 3-1.
2008 – Away – Man Utd – Drew 1-1.
2009 – Away – West Brom – Drew 1-1.
Those are the opening fixtures and results from our last ten seasons, nine of the in the Premier League, so what can we gleam from them?
Well the first thing that sticks in my mind is the amount of times we have been away from St James’ Park on the opening day of the season. Eight of the last ten opening games have been randomly generated to be away from St James’, which possibly explains why we don’t have a better opeing day record.
We haven’t done bad though as we have only lost twice on the opening day of the season in the last ten years, and there is no shame in losing away to Man Utd or Arsenal in fairness. What Newcastle appear to be are opening day draw specialists having drawn five of the last ten opening league fixtures.
So Newcastle appear to be steady starters then, but what about Manchester United, who have been tagged as ‘slow starters’ for a number of years now. How do they fare in their opening fixtures?
2000 – Home – Newcastle – Won 2-0.
2001 – Home – Fulham – Won 3-2.
2002 – Home – West Brom – Won 1-0.
2003 – Home – Bolton – Won 4-0.
2004 – Away – Chelsea – Lost 0-1.
2005 – Away – Everton – Won 2-0.
2006 – Home – Fulham – Won 5-1.
2007 – Home – Reading – Drew 0-0.
2008 – Home – Newcastle – Drew 1-1.
2009 – Home – Birmingham – Won 1-0.
Well one of the first things that jumps out at me from that list is that Manchester United are anything but ‘slow starters’ and have won seven out of their last ten opening league fixtures. They generally start the season at Old Tarfford, and that isn’t going to change this time around either.
It’s quite an impressive list to be honest, although if you look at the last few years it is clear to see that they have stuttered into the new season rather than hitting the ground running.
Does it mean anything for this year though? Probably not, but I just thought it would be nice to have a look and compare the record between the two clubs given the fact they are facing each other on the opening day of the season.
Four days to go!
Think we can cause an upset Monday let’s hope ben arfa. Is wit us as he has gone AWOL so sounds good to me