There was optimism at Newcastle United after Steve McClaren took over as Magpies manager in the summer and the club spending close to £50 million on bringing new players to St. James' Park.
However, things could not have got off to a worse start this season. The Magpies are bottom of the Premier League after eight games, taking just three points from a possible 24.
So what has gone wrong for Newcastle United?
Confidence at rock bottom
Three wins out of 27 matches in 2015 has left Newcastle's confidence at rock-bottom and when your confidence is low you do not want to be playing against the best teams in the league.
Six of the Magpies' opening eight games have been against last season's top six, so it was always going to be a tough start for the Magpies, but that has not done Newcastle's confidence any good.
It is often said that to be successful you require belief and that is something that Newcastle have not got much of at the moment. The Magpies were beating Chelsea 2-0 and Manchester City 1-0, before Chelsea came back to gain a point and Manchester City hit Newcastle for six. As soon as Newcastle conceded the first goal against Chelsea it looked as though they would concede a second.
However, if they had managed to hold on against Chelsea and beaten the Premier League champions then that would have certainly boosted morale.
With matches against Norwich City, Sunderland, Stoke City and Bournemouth in the next month, McClaren will be hoping his side rediscovers their winning mentality.
New signing struggles
Even the clubs summer signings have not been able to boost confidence, despite a total of £50 million being spent on strengthening the team, the second highest nett spend in the Premier League.
Florian Thauvin, who joined Newcastle from Marseille in the summer, showed glimpses of his quality with a goal and three assists in their Capital One Cup win over Northampton Town; however his Premier League performances have fallen well short of those standards.
Striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has not had the greatest start to his Newcastle career, with two yellow cards and a red card in his first four games. However, he did score his first goal for the club in the 6-1 defeat to Manchester City.
Defender Chancel Mbemba is still adapting to English football following his move from Anderlecht in the summer. Georginio Wijnaldum made a superb start to his Newcastle career scoring on his debut in the 2-2 draw with Southampton on the opening day of the season. However, the Dutch international has only managed to add another goal to that tally in the following seven games.
Lack of discipline
A big part of Newcastle's poor start to the season has been their discipline. As the Magpies have discovered it is very hard to win a football match or get something out of a game when you have to play most of the match with 10-men, something that Newcastle have had to do twice already this season.
McClaren described Newcastle's 2-0 defeat to Swansea City in their second game of the season as a "waste of a game", after the Magpies had to play five minutes of the first-half and the entire second-half with 10-men following defender Daryl Janmaat's dismissal.
Newcastle then had to play most of their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal with 10-men after Aleksandar Mitrovic was sent-off in the 16th minute for a challenge on Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin, a decision McClaren felt was "harsh".
You cannot win if you do not score
Not only is it very difficult to win when you are reduced to 10-men, but it is impossible to win if you do not score and scoring goals has been a problem for Newcastle.
The Magpies are the joint-lowest scorers in the Premier League, finding the back of the net on six occasions, the same as West Bromwich Albion and Watford.
They have failed to scored in four of their opening eight league games, but the Magpies have found the net in each of their last three games including against Manchester City and Chelsea.
Aleksandar Mitrovic has scored just once since making his summer move from Anderlecht and Papiss Cisse looks a shadow of the player who scored 11 goals in 22 Premier League appearances last season.
Conceded too many goals
Newcastle's defence has been an area of concern over recent seasons, with the Magpies conceding 68, 59 and 63 goals in their last three seasons.
Things do not look to be improving too much this season as only Sunderland have conceded more goals than the Magpies. Newcastle have conceded 17 goals in eight Premier League games, with their goalless draw at Manchester United their only clean sheet.
However, only Stoke City's goalkeeper Jack Butland (37) has made more saves than Newcastle's Tim Krul (33).