Thought Newcastle would be relegated. Doesn't look like that so far.
The results are better than expected. Alas, the bottom half of the league is a bunched-up as I feared. And flakiness appears to be spreading through the division like wildfire. While likely 38 points would be good enough to survive, and NUFC is now halfway there, I'd like a return of five points minimum from the next three games to start looking up the table rather than down.
Those three games are: Southampton (home), Burnley (away), Palace (home) and it's just as conceivable that Newcastle could lose them all as win them all. Newcastle has two wins from seven home games (only one defeat creates a feel-good factor, but it's a flimsy one). Southampton has won two wins from seven on their travels, and Palace three from seven. Both teams have scored more away goals than Newcastle has scored home goals.
Burnley, meanwhile, has won four and lost four at home. Newcastle's away form reads: won three, lost five.
Five games have been won so far this season - four by a one-goal margin, which is pretty much all a mid-to-lower table team can expect, but it means no game is easily won, and a potentially good result can be wiped out by one instance of brilliance or error. Saint-Maximin's goal needs to mark an upsurge in scoring from the forwards, otherwise the current positive trend is likely to reverse.
With the number of points already in the bag, Joelinton, ASM and Almiron don't need to be hitting double figures each for the team to achieve 17th. They will, however, need to score at least a dozen between them. Even that looks far from certain right now. I don't think any of the named trio is a bad player. It's just that not being bad isn't a part of the sport's scoring system. Putting the ball in the opposition net is.