With only 11 games played, it is perhaps a little too early to make too many bold statements on Newcastle United's fate this season, and yet the next five days feels like a hugely important period for Eddie Howe's men.

It's difficult to assess United's form ahead of tonight's Champions League clash with Benfica, but the plain facts are that they have only won four matches in the first two months of the season. And that, in anyone's book, is not enough.

Even those wins have not kickstarted the season. While the margin of victory over Union Saint Gilloise and Bradford City were comfortable, the truth is that the two Premier League successes cames against struggling Wolves and Nottingham Forest, and were hardly convincing.

On the flip side, Newcastle deserved something from that dramatic 3-2 defeat to Liverpool, and the result against Barcelona could have been very different had they taken their chances. On both occasions, they came up short.

They were second best against Arsenal, Bournemouth and Brighton, certainly in the first half, and never truly looked...