Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez insists there's no reason for panic after a poor season start.

The last time they started a top flight season so poorly was in 1999, which prompted the resignation of then-manager Ruud Gullit and led to the appointment of Sir Bobby Robson.

Asked if he was worried about a return of just one point so far, he said: “No. I said before, it's a difficult time because you have to win games, but it's nothing that we were not expecting, we knew it could be like that.

“The only thing is that maybe against Cardiff, we could have got three points because we had the late penalty.

“But the reality is that against a top side, you can lose and we have lost by a small margin. That's the only positive.

“You think that if you do well, you can get points against these teams."