Left in 2014: Newcastle dud flopped under Pardew, now he's outscoring Gordon

Eddie Howe shrank to the ground, rubbed his temple. The Newcastle United manager, plainly, was dismayed by Anthony Gordon‘s costly red card.

It played into Brighton’s victory in the FA Cup fifth round and weakens United for forthcoming Premier League fixtures against West Ham and Brentford. Sandwiched in the middle, Gordon will miss the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool.

From a positive slant, the Magpies are challenging for a place in next year’s Champions League proper and could be cup champions in less than two weeks.

But still, Gordon is essential to the way Howe plays and it is a significant blow.

Anthony Gordon’s up-and-down season at Newcastle

Last season, Gordon was immense. At the end of his first full year with the Toon, the 23-year-old winger claimed Newcastle’s Player of the Season award after posting 12 goals and 11 assists across all competitions.

And he’s impressed in periods this year, though hasn’t enjoyed the same level of conditions despite the restored fluency and devastating frontline Howe has constructed.

See the table below. Gordon has struggled to kick on when assessing the underlying data, and though his recent red card serves as the nadir of his Tyneside career

Anthony Gordon comparison
Match Stats ( = per game)*	23/24	24/25
Matches (starts)	35 (34)	26 (25)
Goals	11	6
Assists	10	5
Shots (on target)*	2.3 (0.9)	2.1 (0.7)
Big chances missed	9	10
Pass completion	82%	80%
Big chances created	16	6
Key passes*	1.6	1.9
Dribble (success)*	1.5 (49%)	1.3 (45%)
Ball recoveries*	3.6	3.4
Tackles + interceptions*	1.8	1.3
Total duels (won)*	5.3 (49%)	4.8 (51%)
Stats via Sofascore

Gordon certainly hasn’t been poor this season but he has left something to be desired. Indeed, as it happens, one Newcastle flop who was sold a decade ago is outscoring the England winger in 2024/25.

Newcastle flop is now outscoring Gordon this season

Goals aren’t the only part of Gordon’s game – far from it. However, the England international has been far more profligate in the final third, failing to match last year’s creative supplementation too.

Newcastle are a talented attacking unit, fronted by the devastating Alexander Isak.

As per Understat, they are on par through xG (expected goals) in relation to their actual output. Newcastle have scored 46 Premier League goals this season, with an xG total of 47.08. Aston Villa, conversely, are underperforming their expected output by 8.90.

Expected Goals (xG) is a metric designed to measure the probability of a shot resulting in a goal.

Newcastle do need more goals though, seventh in the scoring charts. The likes of Gordon need to improve, especially when noting that, remarkably at the age of 34, Luuk de Jong is bagging more than him this season.

The veteran striker is still an important figure for PSV Eindhoven, having scored 15 times across 36 matches in all competitions. He has two strikes to his name in the Champions League this year, playing 120 minutes and assisting as the Eredivisie table-toppers knocked Juventus out in the first knockout stage. Sadly, he wasn’t able to help his side overcome Arsenal, who dispatched the Dutch side 7-1 on Tuesday night.

It’s a far cry from the discordant youth who failed to make it work at Newcastle during the 2013/14 campaign, bringing the Borussia Monchengladbach talent to the club in January 2014.

Newcastle finished comfortably in tenth that year, but De Jong didn’t bring the expected punch as Loic Remy’s foil, starting eight times in the Premier League but failing to score, providing one assist for Shola Ameobi in a 2-1 St. James’ Park defeat against Swansea City.

Two separate stints with PSV, a Europa League-winning spell with Sevilla and a surprisingly decent loan period with Barcelona have made up a storied post-Newcastle career. It’s not one United will regret, per se, but Alan Pardew clearly saw something in the talented Dutch striker, even if it didn’t work out on Tyneside.

While Newcastle don’t really need this old striker in Howe’s squad, he could have been an excellent option through the tumultuous pre-PIF years.

Gordon’s nine-goal haul across all competitions this term isn’t bad, and, of course, he’s principally a winger, but there’s an over-reliance on Isak’s prolific prowess, and the fact he’s being outscored by this mid-thirties Toon flop underscores his need to step up over the coming months.