Newcastle United’s worrying away trends

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Audacious. Ingenious. Sublime.

Nick Woltemade’s inspired flick at the Amex deserves recognition and it warrants celebration. Few, if any, other Premier League players would have even attempted that finish, never mind executed it so expertly.

But Woltemade’s goal stood out even more, beyond its brilliance, because it was very much the exception. Until that 76th-minute equaliser, Newcastle United had created precious few clear-cut chances.

That shortcoming has become a worrying trend, especially away, where Newcastle have now equalled their longest winless run in the Premier League under Eddie Howe.

Fourth @premierleague goal for Big Nick 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/pN3gdn7Siw

— Newcastle United (@NUFC) October 18, 2025

Newcastle have played seven top-flight fixtures on the road since their last away victory at Leicester City on April 7 — drawing four and losing three — which matches the seven-game winless streak between October 2023 and January 2024, the last time they were navigating a Champions League campaign.

Having failed to win any of their final three away matches of 2024-25, Howe’s team have been unable to triumph in any of their opening four of 2025-26.

Admittedly, the first three were draws, with Newcastle keeping clean sheets at Villa Park, Elland Road and Dean Court. But the opposition recorded shutouts in each of those, suggesting that the balance between attack and defence needed addressing, as impressive as Newcastle had been throughout those fixtures out of possession.

The manner of the first-half performance against Brighton & Hove Albion — and the result, a 2-1 defeat — only magnified concerns many supporters have about Newcastle’s often-toothless attack and how ineffective they have been offensively on their travels. If the midfield trio of Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton performing so abjectly for 45 minutes was an aberration, the general lack of attacking cohesion was a continuation of what has come before this season.

Perversely, while Woltemade has four goals in his first five Premier League appearances — only Loic Remy (five), Les Ferdinand, Michael Owen and Callum Wilson (all four) can boast equivalent-or-better records for Newcastle — he remains an often peripheral figure, especially in the attacking third.

The German has been clinical when presented with opportunities, but he had the fewest touches (31) of any outfield player who played the full match at Brighton and only six were in the opposition box.

Woltemade managed four efforts on goal, a significant uptick on previous games, but only one was on target and he still cut a frustrated figure for much of the match. He remonstrated with team-mates about where he wanted to receive the ball, with some gesturing back that he should be occupying different areas, and attacking the box more often, particularly once Jacob Murphy was on and whipping crosses in.

Since their last away victory, Newcastle have failed to generate an expected goals (xG) return — which measures the quality of shots — above 2.0 in any away match.

Defensively, their average expected goals against (xGA) home and away are almost identical; on the road it is marginally better at 0.85, compared to 0.9 at St James’ Park. However, while Newcastle average 1.8 xG for at home this season, that drops by a third to 1.2 per match away.

The difficulty of Newcastle’s away fixtures have undoubtedly contributed to that.

Newcastle have never won at Brighton in nine Premier League visits and the Amex is one of their bogey grounds, which they have visited twice since April. Trips to Villa Park (twice), the Emirates and Dean Court are also tough tests, with newly-promoted Leeds the only away fixture Newcastle have definitely been ‘expected’ to win.

Although Newcastle won eight away matches in the league last season, seven came against the bottom-seven teams. Newcastle’s only away win against a side who finished above 14th came at Nottingham Forest (seventh), which highlights a ‘flat-track bully’ mentality, but hints at an inability to impose themselves on top-half opposition on the road.

At Brighton, there were the usual attacking deficiencies — at least until the 74th minute, when Guimaraes finally produced Newcastle’s first shot on target — and cracks appeared defensively. Having gone 436 minutes without conceding on the road in all competitions, Danny Welbeck breached Nick Pope’s goal (twice).

During the first half, Newcastle seemed uncharacteristically lethargic. Howe opted to name an unchanged XI for the third straight match and an out-of-sorts midfield struggled.

Joelinton and Guimaraes had travelled to East Asia and back over the international break and appeared fatigued — the former was hooked at half-time — while even the usually imperious Tonali struggled before the break, though Howe insisted Lewis Miley and Jacob Ramsey’s respective fitness levels meant neither was ready to start instead. Anthony Elanga continues to frustrate in attack, yet he was the other surprising starter ahead of Murphy, who was on Tyneside for the entirety of the past fortnight.

Anthony Elanga has yet to spark at Newcastle (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Elanga is yet to provide a goal or an assist in the league since joining, but he is far from alone in contributing precious little.

Worryingly, Newcastle only have three Premier League goalscorers this season — Woltemade (four goals), Guimaraes (two) and Will Osula (one) — and they need their wingers and midfielders to become far more productive.

Woltemade is the solitary away league scorer this season, with the German ending a team-wide run of 437 minutes without an away goal with his flick, which stretched back to an Alexander Isak penalty in May (also at Brighton, ironically). His prolific form has been essential but his scoring rate feels unsustainable; Woltemade needs his team-mates to start delivering, too.

Newcastle’s next two opponents on the road are West Ham (19th in the table) and Brentford (16th) in successive league games next month. Those matches are eminently winnable, but only if Howe can find some equilibrium between defence and attack.

Before then, Newcastle have three matches across three competitions, all at St James’ Park, starting with Benfica in the Champions League on Tuesday. Given their unsatisfactory away form, Newcastle desperately need the comforts of home to really kickstart their stuttering campaign.

This news was originally published on this post .

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