Sky Sports release shocking Newcastle stats - A major decline Eddie Howe must address

Sky Sports revealed a shocking statistic about our recent defensive record as we fell to a third successive Premier League defeat against Brighton on Saturday.

In our first 20 games of last season, we kept 12 clean sheets and conceded just 11 times. However, as the stats below show, we have kept just two clean sheets and conceded 29 goals in our last 22 games; almost three times as many.

Since February, we have recorded just two clean sheets, coming against Man United and Leicester at home. A defence that was once a well-oiled machine now looks shaky, under-protected and far less likely to keep teams out.

In contrast, there was a spell between October and January last season where we banked an incredible NINE clean sheets in 11 Premier League outings, keeping a club-record six in a row at one stage.

Nick Pope has not looked the same player since that game against Liverpool, looking very low on confidence, and teams have started to target Dan Burn as the weakest side of our defence. Without Sven Botman, the usually reliable Fabian Schar also looked all over the place in last weekend's defeat to Brighton.

It's a complete contrast to how we started the 2022/23 campaign, with our defensive solidity the main source of praise from other fans and pundits and the bedrock of our success last season in many respects. Something has clearly changed and we must find a fix.

With the pressure rising to get results after our poor start, hopefully Eddie Howe and the club's coaching team can come up with solutions over the international break, with huge league games, Man City in the cup and a trip to Milan to come.