Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe may rip the Magpies' tactics up and start again after their poor away form, says The Athletic's Chris Waugh.

Howe's side have failed to win any of their Premier League matches away from St James’ Park this term, scoring just two goals in five games.

And the Newcastle correspondent believes that the North East side are likely to change at least their midfield when they head to Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday (2pm kick-off GMT), live on Sky Sports.

Newcastle are 13th in the Premier League going into Sunday’s game, with three wins, three draws and four defeats so far. What have you made of their start?

It is difficult to put your finger on Newcastle’s start. They have reached a fourth-straight Carabao Cup quarter-final - this time as holders - and have been doing well in the Champions League, where they pushed Barcelona hard before losing and beat Union SG and Benfica by a cumulative score of 7-0.

But, in the Premier League, they just cannot get any consistency whatsoever. They have not won back-to-back matches at any point so far this season and have been struggling away from home, certainly goalscoring-wise.

The 3-1 defeat at West Ham made it eight away league matches without victory, a run that stretches back to April when they won at Leicester.

It has just become a bit of a trend that they are struggling on the road and saving their best football for the cup competitions when, really, they need to find some consistency in the Premier League, as they are already starting to get cut adrift of the European positions they want to be in come the end of the season.

The Liverpool and Arsenal winners came in the 96th and 100th minutes. They created 1.43 xG in the opener against Aston Villa but still drew 0-0. Would you say, in any way, the situation looks worse than it actually is?

There is mitigation. Newcastle lost their star player, Alexander Isak, late in the summer and, to a degree, that explains part of their goalscoring issues.

Nick Woltemade has come in and done very well in terms of scoring goals, but chance creation has not been there for him; he has scored with every single shot on target he has had (six), which says a lot about how clinical he has been, but that is unsustainable.

They did perform well against Aston Villa and they were unfortunate against Liverpool but, while Arsenal’s winner came late, the Gunners did deserve to win that.

At St James’ Park, they have possibly been unlucky on occasion but, away from home, attacking-wise, they have not looked particularly good.

They deserved to lose at Brighton, on the whole, and the West Ham result has become the nadir.

As much as you can say they have been unfortunate to a certain degree, to go to a team like West Ham, who had not won at home since February, while a protest was going on, take the lead inside four minutes and somehow manage to lose and comfortably, points to more fundamental, longer-term flaws, certainly away from home.

In the Premier League, it has almost felt as though they are struggling to get themselves up to the same levels, intensity-wise, as they do for other competitions.

It has become too much of a trend now for it to be written off as them being a bit unlucky.

Like you say, things have been more positive in cup competitions. Now they’ve got the monkey off their back in terms of a first piece of major silverware since 1955, is there a feeling of not wanting it to be a one-off?

There is very much a determination for Newcastle to become serial winners. After the scenes at Wembley, then on Tyneside the week after the Carabao Cup final, all the players want to experience that again. They loved that moment, but have an elite mentality to keep wanting to push on and do it again.

In the Carabao Cup, they are relentless. Their record under Eddie Howe - in a competition, historically, they have not done very well in, given the stature of the club - is remarkable. He has only lost once in normal time in four years, and that was in the 2022 final against Manchester United.

Since then, they have reached three more quarter-finals and, against Fulham, you would fancy them to reach the semi-finals again. They want to keep pushing on and improving, but the knock-on effect is whether that is affecting their Premier League form.

I think Howe would argue otherwise, but it seems that the focus shifts when they are playing in cup competitions and players know how to raise their levels, whereas in the Premier League, where it has become more run-of-the-mill, for want of a less derogatory term, they are struggling to match those levels.

There is a determination to win silverware, but there is also a determination to have more Champions League nights, or European nights in general and, unless they start performing in the Premier League, they are going to give themselves too much to do to catch up in that regard.

Which player should Brentford be keeping an eye out for?

I would have suggested it could be Yoane Wissa if he was going to be fit and available, but we still do not know if he will be at the time of speaking. My suspicion is that he will not be back until after the November international break, as he still has not trained with the first-team squad since arriving.

It is ironic that someone who was rarely injured at Brentford has been sidelined for this long, but it is perhaps similar to the Alexander Isak situation of not having had a pre-season and the knock-on effect of that.

But it has to be Nick Woltemade. I have mentioned his record already and he has scored some spectacular flicks and headers, even though everyone says he is not a clichéd target man.

He is 6’6”, but he is nicknamed ‘Woltemessi’ because he is very good with his feet and his link-up play is wonderful; he is almost like a No.10 playing as a No.9, given the crossover traits.

What should Keith Andrews’ men expect in terms of shape and style?

Generally, Newcastle play with a 4-3-3 formation.

The starting midfield in the last two Premier League games away from home has been what has long been seen as their “strongest” midfield, with Joelinton, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães, who are sometimes considered as one of the best trios in the Premier League.

But, as I said, away from home, they have struggled. Joelinton was hooked at Brighton and struggled again at West Ham, so I struggle to see those three starting together.

Woltemade will be through the middle, with Anthony Gordon, theoretically, down the left, though he has not scored or assisted a league goal in 19 games. Jacob Murphy will probably start on the right; Anthony Elanga came in in the summer, but has not really hit the heights yet.

Lewis Hall could come back in at left-back, where Dan Burn has been playing in his absence, Kieran Trippier will be at right-back after he was ill for the West Ham game, while Sven Botman and Malick Thiaw have largely been playing at centre-back, with Nick Pope in goal.

But it would not surprise me if there was a little bit of a rip up and start again come the Brentford game because the formula is not working away from home at the minute, and it feels like it needs a bit of a rethink.

There have been eight Premier League meetings so far, of which Newcastle have won six. What’s your score prediction for this one?

It is hard to predict a Newcastle win away from home given what they have been going through, but they really do need a response of some form, so I am going to go for a 2-2 draw.