Newcastle United fans haven't had it better than this after 10 matches for a decade with Eddie Howe's team making it five matches unbeaten in the Premier League and picking up 15 points so far.
The last time they had more points at this stage of the season was back in 2011/12 when Alan Pardew's team earned an impressive 22 points with 10 games on the board. The only other time Newcastle have picked up more points than this in the last 15 seasons was under Sam Allardyce in 2007/08 when he had 17 points in the bag at this stage.
But the real sign of year-on-year progress comes when you compared this season and last.
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The 15-point tally Howe is sitting on in mid-October - and two weeks before the clocks go back took until January 22 to achieve last season with a 1-0 win at Leeds thanks to Jonjo Shelvey's winner at Elland Road.
The remarkable turnaround for Howe is made even more impressive when you take a look at the annual Premier League table for 2022. In it, United sit in fifth spot with only Man City, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal ahead of them. Howe and his players have clocked up 53 points in the calendar year so far - two more than Chelsea and TEN more than Man United!
Defensively there is an amazing improvement for Newcastle under Howe too. The nine goals conceded so far leaves United with the best defensive record in the league for goals conceded at the moment with every other team in double figures against.
Nick Pope has four clean sheets to his name so far which is 50% of the shutouts in total last term after just 10 matches. United earned just eight clean sheets from 38 matches last term and could smash that record if they keep on playing with the same solidity.
Howe laid down a challenge after the game when speaking in his post-game Press conference, he said: "The challenge is to continue with that consistency, while not losing our attacking edge."
He stated there was room for improvement and wasn't completely satisfied after the draw at Man United.
He said: "I just thought we were a little bit off at Man United with the ball, which hasn’t been like us in the last few weeks when we’ve scored nine goals in two games."
Kieran Trippier also made a telling point as captain after the match and felt that it was sharpness in the final third that could have cost Newcastle. Had Marcus Rashford's free header gone in it would have been more heartache for Newcastle at Old Trafford.
Trippier said: "Coming to these types of places you need to be clinical and take your chances, because you don't get many. You see Marcus' chance at the end and these little details are the difference.
"I am happy it didn’t go in, obviously, but we need to learn from this. Coming to places to like Man United, the top teams in the league, you need to take your chances."
Such nitpicking is healthy for United going into another big week with two games against Everton and Spurs. If they can keep this up the record books will be dusted down again as the season takes shape.
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