The Eels have won four of their first six games, including last week's 51-6 hammering of Wests Tigers at the newly opened Bankwest Stadium.

The Knights are coming off five consecutive losses, including last week's humbling 38-14 defeat by the Titans on the Gold Coast.

Yet if Nathan Brown and his embattled troops were searching for confidence, a brief stroll down memory lane might be all they need.

Last season they thrashed the Eels 30-4 at ANZ Stadium and then outlasted them 18-16 in the return bout on home turf.

And in 2017, Newcastle beat Parramatta 29-10 at ANZ - their first victory at an away venue in almost two years.

That makes the Eels the only team against whom the Knights have racked up three consecutive wins since Brown's tenure kicked off in 2016.

Not that the Novocastrians will be treating the visitors with anything less than the utmost respect on Sunday.

"They're coming off a red-hot win and they're firing on all cylinders," Newcastle hooker Danny Levi said.

"So we're in for a big job on the weekend, but I think it's probably the best time.

"We're in a bit of a rut and it's definitely going to gee the boys up, coming up against a side like them."

Levi admitted he was "quite disappointed in myself, actually", after reviewing his performance against the Titans.

After a heart-to-heart with Brown, he intends to go back to basics this week.

"I've talked to Browny a bit and we've come up with a bit of a simpler game plan for myself," he said. "I think it's going to work for me.

"It brings out a lot of my best attributes in the game ... the best part of my game is when I'm running the ball myself, trying to get a quick play-the-ball and bust the line.

"I think I tried a bit too hard to put people in holes. When I get my thing right, it will definitely help the boys."

Levi said there was still plenty of belief among his teammates that they were capable of turning their season around and challenging for a top-eight finish, for the first time since 2013.

"You've seen other teams in the past, they've started off even worse and ended up in the finals," he said.

"We definitely haven't lost any confidence. We just need to get a lot more things right and the results will come ... if everyone in the team is doing their job properly, it's going to make it a lot easier for us.

"At the moment, it's too inconsistent. We've got some people doing it, some people not."

Knights five-eighth Connor Watson, however, acknowledged the urgency of the situation.

"There's not much time left for us as a team," Watson said. "We're getting deep into the season. We've got to start winning games."