Newcastle United beware: the last time Rafael Benitez lost 3 in a row

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Benitez could do no wrong at St James’ – until very recently that is.

Whether you agree with it or not, a penalty shootout defeat is still a defeat in the eyes of the statisticians. What cannot be disputed, however, is that 0-1 and 1-2 scorelines against Blackburn Rovers and Nottingham Forest will also cause a little capital L to appear in the form guide.

Therefore, the official word is that Rafael Benitez has travelled home with that sinking, losing feeling after three games in succession. It’s also the first time Newcastle, almost faultless this season until very recently, have been defeated in three consecutive games under the Spaniard, even as they succumbed to relegation from the Premier League last season.

And, while three defeats on the bounce constitutes a rare feeling for a Newcastle side who have got rather used to winning of late, the sensation is even more alien to their manager. Even during his ill-fated, doomed-from-the-start, seven month reign in the most scalding of managerial hot-seats at Real Madrid, Benitez never once managed to string together such a prolonged period of losing.

In fact, you’d have to go back over three years for the last time he suffered such a statistic.

Between the 10^th and 26 of November 2013, Benitez’s Napoli ended up on the losing side against Juventus and Parma in Serie A, followed up by a 3-1 defeat to Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.

And, if you were under the impression that three years isn’t a particularly long time, consider this; the Juve side that swept Napoli away 3-0 in Turin lined up with Fernando Llorente up top and Angelo Ogbonna at the back. For the record, the former scored, the latter got sent off.

And though Benitez’s Napoli, consisting of supreme talent in the shape of Gonzalo Higuain, Jose Callejon and Marek Hamsik, recovered to finish third in Serie A, that three-game losing spell saw them demoted from the Champions League into the Europa while sending them spinning off course in the title race.

Newcastle welcome Birmingham City to St James’ Park on Sunday aiming to regain that winning touch and Benitez will know from experience just how damaging a run of defeats can be to both mentality and momentum. With Brighton breathing down their neck, The Magpies need to follow those Ls with a W.