Three wins, three draws and three losses with nine goals scored and eight conceded surely isn't what Eddie Howe and his backroom staff would've expected at the start of another arduous season.
A season in which Champions League football would return to Tyneside.
History repeating for Newcastle
It's worth remembering that two seasons ago, when the Magpies were last in the premier European competition, their league form really suffered, and injuries certainly didn't help.
There already seems to be a symmetry of sorts to that 2023/24 campaign, though they have at least won two of their three UCL games to date, losing the other to Barcelona and a resurgent Marcus Rashford.
One bright spot would appear to be the form of new striker Nick Woltemade.
Six goals in 11 games is a fine return, and he needs only another 10 goals to be in Newcastle's top 10 scorers of the past five seasons.
Sitting atop that particular tree is Alexander Isak, now struggling to replicate his Magpies form after a move to Liverpool.
The Swedish hit man bagged a sensational 62 goals and 10 assists in 109 games for the North East giants, at least 13 more than any other player in the same time frame.
Loss of Isak and PSR hasn't helped Magpies
Losing that kind of firepower was always going to take its toll, though Newcastle weren't helped by off-pitch upheaval including issues with the sporting director, as well as having to stay in line with the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules.
PSR was arguably brought in so that the likes of Newcastle couldn't just hoover up any players that they wanted at virtually any price, and whether the owners want to put a brave face on it or not, that has seriously impacted their ability to win trophies.
Indeed, a maiden Premier League title still seems little more than a pipe dream at this point in time.
From Eddie Howe's point of view, given the hand that he's been dealt, he can hardly have done more.
In the 187 games that he's been in charge, 95 have been won, 40 have been drawn and 52 have been lost. 322 goals have been scored whilst 217 have been conceded.
A win percentage of 50.8% is significantly better than a number of his predecessors, and ask any Magpies fan if they'd swap the UCL win over Paris Saint-Germain and the Carabao Cup final win over Liverpool for anything, and 100 times out of 100, the answer would be the same.
Stuttering start in 2025/26
Newcastle may still be lacking in the silverware stakes, but they do play some of the best football in the English top flight when they're on song.
Which does make the stuttering start to the 2025/26 campaign feel a little, well... ordinary.
Only the bottom three clubs in the division have scored fewer than Newcastle's nine goals, and six of those came in three games - against Liverpool (2-3), Fulham (2-1) and Nottingham Forest (2-0).
New signing Yoane Wissa, who would surely have been relied upon to play his part in a goalscoring sense, has therefore been sorely missed, though a potential return to action in early November couldn't have come at a more opportune moment.
The Carabao Cup has also provided some solace from the pressures of the daily grind, and the Magpies are within touching distance of another Wembley date if they can beat Fulham in their quarter-final in mid-December and then overcome semi-final opponents that could include Arsenal, Chelsea or Man City.
Could Howe be the fall guy?
The bread and butter of the Premier League remains the be-all and end-all for most; however, another season of mid-table mediocrity might not sit well with Saudi owners who probably thought they'd have landed an EPL title by now.
With managers almost always being the fall guy in such situations, Howe will largely understand that if league position as well as performance levels don't improve, it's likely to be his head on the block.
Unfair? Yes. Though no football manager goes into a job these days with their eyes closed.
Some creative transfer dealings in January could go some way to re-energising a squad that's lacking something at the moment.
God forbid Woltemade succumbs to Newcastle's injury curse at any point soon, because the club's top scorer is already a hero on Tyneside and has softened the blow of Isak's departure.
The next couple of months are set to define the Magpies' season, and if the status quo remains after January, Howe will have a hard time justifying his position to the powers that be, attractive football or otherwise.
