Newcastle United welcome Stoke City to St James’ Park looking to record their THIRD victory on the bounce for the first time in the Premier League since the 2014-15 campaign.
Rafa Benitez sat out the 1-0 win away to Swansea City after recovering from a short illness but watched from home as his players battled to a hard fought victory.
That was the first consecutive double in the Premier League since December 2015, when Steve McClaren guided United to surprising wins against Liverpool and Tottenham.
On December 6th, Georginio Wijnaldum scored in the last minute at St James’ Park to guide the Magpies to a 2-0 victory over Liverpool. The Dutchman would go onto join the Reds the following summer.
A few days later, December 13th, Ayoze Perez scored at the death to record a shock 2-1 win at White Hart Lane; Aleksandar Mitrovic had got the other one.
Yet the last time United recorded three straight victories in the top flight was back in November 2014.
Alan Pardew had started the season particularly badly, gaining only four points from a possible 21 before going on a five game winning streak between October 18th and November 22.
The Magpies beat Leicester and Spurs - before recording the third win against Liverpool on November 1st. They then went onto record wins against West Brom and QPR - conceding just one goal in those fives games.
The run of games against Liverpool and West Brom was the last time the club kept two consecutive clean sheets in the top flight as they have this season. The defence would also shut up shop against QPR.
Pardew would only go on to win two more games before leaving for Crystal Palace at the turn of the year.
Of course under Benitez, the Spaniard guided the Magpies to a five game winning streak early last season after, ironically, losing the first two games of the Championship campaign as they have this season.
Benitez went onto record more than three consecutive victories or more three times. An eight game winning streak between September and November, three consecutive victories between December 10th and December 17th and a three consecutive victories on the way to lifting the title on the final day between April 24th and May 7th.
Therefore a win against Stoke City this Saturday could see:
Newcastle United record THREE top flight victories on the bounce for the first time since October/November 2014
Newcastle United record THREE consecutive top flight clean sheets for the first time since October/November 2014
Newcastle United record THREE consecutive victories since April/May 2017.