Howe: Saudi Arabia trip was turning point in Newcastle’s season

NEWCASTLE: Newcastle United’s mid-season trip to Saudi Arabia was the turning point in the Magpies’ Premier League season, according to head coach Eddie Howe. Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s visit of Crystal Palace to St. James’ Park, Howe pinpointed the winter warm weather camp in Jeddah in January as the catalyst to Newcastle’s end-of-season revival.

The Magpies had only just won their second game of the season prior to jetting to the Middle East — a 1-0 triumph at Leeds United — but since then, they have claimed seven victories in their last 11, including a last gasp 2-1 win against Leicester City on Sunday. “Yeah, difficult at the time to see it at the time, but looking back that was a turning point for us,” Howe said of the Saudi visit. “We went to Saudi Arabia, which was a brilliant trip for the group and we came back in a much better place, united and ready to start the fight to stay in the division.

“To get that positive result before we left, to keep a clean sheet away from home and the performance was a good one, that was a massive, massive result for us that led to the good run of form since.” Newcastle left 2021 nestled in the Premier League’s bottom three — and to many their season looked doomed. No team in the history of the Premier League has ever retained their top flight status having not won any of their opening 14 games — at least, until Howe turned the tables at Newcastle. Having just been beaten at Liverpool, then hammered on home turf by Manchester City, things looked bleak with the January transfer window around the corner.

A draw with Manchester United on Dec. 27 did soften things slightly, even though that point was not enough to see the Magpies get their heads above water in the top flight. A