Newcastle United facing unusual St James' Park challenge Liverpool will already be planning for

Newcastle United truly have been an enigma this season. For every Arsenal there has been a West Ham. For every Nottingham Forest there has been a Fulham.

They've beaten Spurs, Southampton and Wolves without really playing well, yet were the better side against Everton and Brighton but emerged with little to show for their efforts. No one player is particularly under-performing, but then who is standing out as the matchwinner?

Has anyone improved from last season's standards? Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento certainly fit into that category, but elsewhere . . . probably not. Not that it should be doom and gloom after what was one below par performance against West Ham.

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It would be not leap of faith to envisage a useful away win at struggling Crystal Palace on Saturday followed by a rousing midweek St James' Park showdown with Liverpool. If the Reds head North with confidence then Arne Slot should ask Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta, Ange Postecoglou and Enzo Maresca on their thoughts on playing on Tyneside this season.

So let's keep things in perspective. However, what the West Ham defeat did underline was a worrying issue that is something of a first for Newcaslte under Eddie Howe. For the second time this season, United failed to score on home turf in the Premier League.

For context, that is something which didn't happen ONCE in the 2023-24 campaign. Indeed in all competitons, only Borussia Dortmund left Tyneside with a clean sheet last season - and United battered the goal that night in search of an equaliser. In the Premier League alone, they smashed 49 home goals last term - only Manchester City managed more (51).

Newcastle have scored just five Premier League goals in their six home games this season, and only found the net twice in the same game on one occasion. While you could also highlight the 2-0 Carabao Cup win over Chelsea, that came after they managed just Fabian Schar's penalty in the 1-0 win over AFC Wimbledon.

Howe always sets his side up to score goals, so the fact it's not happening should be raising questions for the United head coach and his staff. The fact they've beaten Arsenal and Spurs - and earned a draw with Manchester City - suggests there is not something fundamentallty wrong, but it does hint at a concerning issue.

If Newcastle concede first on home turf then they struggle to get back into the game. They have proven they can do it away from home, winning at Wolves and Forest, but it's rare teams will sit back and settle for a one-goal lead at home.

At St James' Park, it's a different story. United had chances to score against Brighton but didn't take them - and were largely shut out by a West Ham side who have been conceding plenty all term. The creative players must step up in these situations, but in truth, it was full-backs Hall and Livramento who looked most likely to conjour something up.

Howe has a full complement of attacking talent available to him right now - providing Bruno Guimaraes shakes off a muscle issue. Few sides are going to come to St James' to do anything but sit deep, and it's up to the Magpies boss to come up with a solution before those big wins become less relevant.