Newcastle United Are Still The EPL Worst Team In 2014

Talk of turning corners is severely premature.

By Simon Gallagher /

Jack Colback claims that Newcastle are in a false position at the minute, that their 18th place positioning in the Premier League is not a true representation of the quality of the team, the club or the manager. Unfortunately for Jack, and for every other Newcastle fan, it seems the falsely optimistic mood coming out of the dressing room - akin to the Titanic rats having a sing-song - can't hide from the fact that in almost every respect, the club remain bottom of the 2014 form table. Of all of the teams who have been ever-present in the Premier League in 2014 - all of whom have played 27 times in the league - Newcastle are chillingly bottom of the tables for wins, goals scored, goal difference and points won, while Stoke are the only team who have managed less clean sheets in the same period. And to go along with that, the club are top for goals conceded, losses, and games in which they've failed to score. https://twitter.com/MikeAshleyLies/status/524475582289940482 The positives are few and far between - though it seems inevitable that Pardew will hang on to not being bottom of the clean sheets table. Quite how anyone could attempt to claim that Newcastle do not deserve to be where they are in the league, or that the manager does not deserve to be hauled over the coals for the performances of his time in the last twelve months is utterly baffling. Were this any other club, the manager's position would be severely under threat - as it was for fellow strugglers Aston Villa before Paul Lambert turned things round - or he would already have been sacked, as Pepe Mel was at West Brom. But Mike Ashley continues to ignore the cold hard facts, and as he slips an arm around his manager and visits a dressing room to celebrate mediocrity, it doesn't look like he'll be changing his approach any time soon.