Only 17 goals have been scored direct from corners in Premier League history - and Manchester United have conceded two of them in their last two top flight outings.

Tottenham Hotspur's Heung-min Son and Wolves forward Matheus Cunha have humiliated Andre Onana by scoring 'Olimpicos' in recent days, curling efforts beyond the Cameroon stopper from the corner box. Ruben Amorim's side, facing struggles all over the pitch, are dealing with a crisis of confidence when it comes to the opposition's set pieces.

For the Red Devils, it therefore isn't a good time to welcome Newcastle United to Old Trafford given Eddie Howe's side have started to find their feet with well-worked routines from dead ball situations. The start of this campaign brought a barren run of scoring from corners and free-kicks but that has all changed of late with Jacob Murphy and Sandro Tonali both finding the net from impressive training ground routines brought to life at St James' Park this month.

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Jason Tindall, Stephen Purches and Simon Weatherstone put significant work into this area of Newcastle's game behind the scenes and have been celebrating their success after impressive-looking moves as the club's fortunes turned around following an inconsistent period.

"Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't," Howe explained. "But they're important for us because when we have created chances from open play, we haven't always taken them so you're looking for a way and I really don't care where the goals come from.

"They need to come from somewhere and there needs to be a regular source. Our set-plays have been really good in recent weeks. Congratulations to everyone who does work on them. Ultimately, the players are the ones that have to do it and the staff would be the first people to acknowledge that."

Manchester United have a conceded a club-record 18 times from free kicks and corners in 2024 with Amorim hoping that tally isn't added to before 2025 rolls around. However, the new Portuguese coach admits the home fans will likely be feeling nervous when Newcastle arrive at Old Trafford this week.

"We have to expect that any player from Newcastle near our box is going to make the stadium nervous and our players have to cope with that, so they have a very strong team, very fast with a lot of pace and a lot of time working with the same coach," he said after the loss to Wolves. "We want to be competitive and win the game."