Newcastle United face a historic challenge for Premier League survival

Newcastle United faces a historic challenge of fighting their way out of trouble at the bottom of the Premier League.

Eddie Howe is hoping to steer Newcastle United to make Premier League history to guarantee top-flight football next season after the Magpies won for the first time this season on Saturday.

While United’s win over Burnley took them off the bottom of the standings and raised their prospects of a miraculous comeback, the figures show that their chances are numbered.

For no Premier League team has ever avoided relegation after going 14 games without a win from the start of the season, as Newcastle did before overcoming the Clarets.

And, while Howe will aim to use Newcastle’s new financial power to considerably upgrade his squad in January, the statistics show that it will not be enough to save the Magpies…

All of the teams that have had a poor start to the season have finished at the bottom of the Premier League table.

Queens Park Rangers were the last team to match Newcastle’s 14-game winless streak in 2012-13.

From the start of that season, the Rs had gone 16 games without a win, and were relegated to 20th position, 14 points from safety.

A humiliating 5-0 home defeat to Swansea on the opening day set the tone for a terrible season that saw Mark Hughes ousted and his replacement, Harry Redknapp, fail miserably.

A goalless draw against fellow relegation candidates With three games to spare, Reading sealed QPR’s relegation after a season in which they managed only four wins and 25 points.

The only other time a club went 14 games without a win at the start of a Premier League season came in 1993-94, when United was in its first season back in the top level.

Swindon Town’s first Premier League season began with 16 games without a win.

In September, John Gorman’s side collected only their third point of the season, a 2-2 draw against Newcastle at the County Ground.

Despite breaking their duck in game 17 with a win over QPR, Swindon only won four more games, conceded over 100 goals, and only kept four clean sheets on their way to ending bottom of the table by ten points.

Howe, on the other hand, can draw inspiration from a side who had a similarly poor start to a Premier League season but yet managed to remain up.

Derby County had only seven points in their first 13 games in 2000-01 until defeating Bradford City.

But that victory sparked a four-game winning streak for the Rams, who finally sealed their survival with a shock victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford.