This feels huge for Newcastle United

Newcastle United play Leeds United tonight.

The trip to Elland Road is the second shortest one of this Premier League season from our extreme northerly outpost.

Fair to say that as Newcastle United fans we approached this 2026/27 season with some trepidation.

With so many changes of personnel on and off the pitch this summer, many of the key ones happening only in the three weeks before the season kicked off, the potential for things to go very wrong was all too obvious.

The three weeks that have then followed, with Newcastle United playing their opening five competitive matches, have been full of surprises. The really surprising thing is that almost all of these have been positive.

You could have got very long odds on Matthias Jaissle and his Newcastle United players remaining unbeaten by this point.

The thing is as well though, none of this has been down to fluking it.

Newcastle United were the better team and deserved to beat both Liverpool and Spurs, unlucky to pick up only four instead of six points from this pair of games against ‘Premier League Big Six’ clubs that hold so many advantages.

The two Carabao Cup matches were real banana skins against Championship clubs but Newcastle were the better team on both nights and deserved their wins at home to West Brom (who are now joint top of the Championship after seven matches) and away at Millwall.

Going 2-0 down against bogey side Bournemouth who finished top six last season, who of us thought at that point Newcastle United would get anything??? Yet Matthias Jaissle’s United showed great character to bounce back and get a point, which could well have been all three if the referee had awarded the proper amount of added time that was due.

It might seem daft to then say at such an early point of the season that this Leeds United match is a hugely important one but to me it is.

Confidence and momentum are huge factors.

Lose at Elland Road and I think it is only natural to then look at results so far in a very different way, just one win in four and in the bottom half of the table.

A draw tonight and still ticking along unbeaten, if a goalless draw then joint seventh, if a scoring draw up to clear seventh.

A victory tonight and very happy days.

Not that I think that this then means Newcastle United are in any way title contenders BUT it does very much open the way up to what could become a spectacularly good start to the season, especially when compared to the disaster so many ‘experts’ were seeing as a formality and indeed many NUFC fans as well.

A win against Leeds would see Newcastle United third top of the Premier League after four rounds of games.

It would then also mean a home victory against Hull on Saturday would take Newcastle to 11 points from the first five Premier League matches and at the worst third in the table. Then heading into this international break that lasts three weeks (more in Newcastle’s case!) knowing Matthias Jaissle can then have this precious bonus time to work with his players, time he had precious little of before having to start the season against Liverpool. Not forgetting of course the small fact that United are now already into the last 16 of the Carabao Cup and imagine if on top of the other potential positivity, if NUFC also can bank a nice home tie when the draw is made on Wednesday night.

Then on top of all that, when the Premier League returns after the international break, Newcastle have a Coventry side to face away who currently have scored no goals and have no points, plus they’ve conceded ten goals and are rock bottom.

Individuals can play so much better when having confidence and momentum on their side and this is even more so when this is how an entire team is feeling overall.

I think this Premier League season there won’t be a single match where I think this is an absolutely guaranteed three points for Newcastle United but we the team are looking organised and competitive, so if we can get this huge win at Leeds United the positivity will be pulsing through the veins.

The Premier League table on the morning of Monday 14 September 2026

Newcastle United now know that they will go third in the table if winning against Leeds United.

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