The victory over Huddersfield was a massive step to safety and meant March ended on a real high for Newcastle, now boasting three home victories on the belt. The seven point cushion we have over the drop zone should mean a more comfortable April than we imagined a few months ago.
Momentum is with us and the next four games give us the platform to mathematically seal safety before May. Three of the four look relatively tough, but here’s a look at each and how I think we’ll get on:
Leicester City (A)
Our next fixture sees us travel down to the King Power Stadium, as Leicester are on a good run under French boss Claude Puel. They have some excellent players and of course have the threat of Vardy and Mahrez going forward. They will be aiming to finish 7th with the hope of securing a Europa League place. They cut us open on the counter on their way to 3 points earlier in the season at St.James’ but we seemed far more resilient defensively these days. It will be a tough game but a point would be a good return for us, keep the momentum going and another point closer to staying up.
Danger man – Jamie Vardy
Prediction – 1-1
Arsenal (H)
Next up sees Arsenal travel up to St.James’ off the back of a two day turnaround from their crucial Europa League game in Russia. With such a poor season in the league by their standards Europe is their main focus and they main visit us with their eye off the ball and jet lagged. They of course still have quality layers, especially going forward so it’s still a tough ask. We have turned our home form round though and fancy us to come away with something.
Danger man – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Prediction – 1-1
Everton (A)
We then travel down to Goodison Park for a reunion with Sam Allardyce, who himself is under pressure to keep his job past the summer on Merseyside. His style of football has not been welcomed by the locals (who can blame them) and they are stumbling towards mid table obscurity. This game is hard to predict (along with the Leicester and Arsenal ones), but if we got 2/3 points from them (with 35 already on the board), it wouldn’t be a bad return at all.
I’ve got a feeling Big Sam will get them right up for this one (he doesn’t like Rafa). It would be typical too if Tosun grabs the winner, with us heavily linked and outbid in January for the Turkish striker.
Danger man – Cenk Tosun
Prediction – 1-0 Everton
West Brom (H)
We see out the month hosting West Brom who unfortunately won’t be managed by ex- Toon boss Alan Pardew. It is likely the Baggies will already be down by this game as they complete a miserable season. This could be the game we confirm our safety as we have to target a win. Like the Huddersfield game, we may have to be patient, but I think we will get the job done.
Danger man – Salomon Rondon
Prediction – 2-0 Newcastle
If we can get 5 points in April it would put us on 40 points and surely safe, which would mark a wonderful season and achievement from Rafa and the players. Let’s be honest, we would have grabbed at the chance of this opportunity at the start of the season and to not be in the mix for ‘Survival Sunday’ would be a big relief.
What points do you think we will pick up this month?
So we play spurs on 9th may then, nice packed schedule
3 games in 9 days !
kimtoon(Quote)
Lets hope we are well safe before that little cluster of games, totally unfair that on the travelling fans.
Brightons game that was cancelled for april 20th v spuds was changed to 17th april ? that should of been given to Toon as our game was cancelled first. Don’t get it.
kimtoon(Quote)
That’s our toughest game so I am sort of glad it has been put back. If we have any momentum Spurs could have killed it and they may have the FA Cup Final to think about and probably will have qualified for CL by the time we play them. Half their team will be thinking about the World Cup as well.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Spurs have Leicester at home after us so that will be their lap of honour and then the FA Cup final is May 19th. Hope they qualify as I would like this team to win a trophy before it is inevitably broken up. Walker has already left for more money and Rose and Alderwelderied are looking to double their wages. How long before Kane and Alli follow as Levy will not pay the current going rate with a 1 billion pound stadium to pay for?
I think this match has fallen right for us although we still only have a slim chance as Spurs are a very good team.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Still think it’s wrong though Eric, if we were desperate for the points at that point, so many close together would be really tough. There is a high risk of injury with games so close as that too.
Worse of all is the total lack of thought for fans travelling to London on a Wednesday night plus it’s taken an age to sort out this date.
kimtoon(Quote)
On Sky though so us armchair fans can watch.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Plenty of Geordies in London and a day out to Wembley will be nice. Got 5 weeks to make arrangements from Newcastle so that should be OK.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Not footy. but not fair imo,new tax law this month,highest earners better off over yr,lowest earner over £33 worse off
Icedog(Quote)
£300
Icedog(Quote)
Ice – Higher Earners pay a lot more tax than lower earners. In fact the top 1% of earners in this country pay nearly 30% of the tax brought in by the government. That’s just personally. That doesn’t take into account the millions employed by companies owned by these people.
Anyway, interesting CL game tonight. Still thing this tie is far from over.
Stuart79(Quote)
Fair point Stu, all the same them that don’t have that earning power shouldn’t have to be punished anymore.
kimtoon(Quote)
Before anybody does any analysis of the Leicester game can I say again that we will be playing a completely different team to December. Lascelles and Dummett were injured. Shelvey and Diame didn’t start. Dubravka and Kenedy were not at the club.
My guess is that these 6 will play so there will be at least 6 changes, possibly more. In addition Lejuene had just come back from injury and had only played a couple of games. We were also in the middle of that really bad run of form.
Trying to base what will happen on Saturday on December will be folly in my opinion. We might still lose but it will be a completely different team that we see out there.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
This is the team that started against Leicester in December. By my reckoning there will be 7 changes:
Darlow
Yedlin Lejuene Clark Manqillo
Ritchie Merino Hayden Murphy
Joselu
Gayle
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The Cannes Film Festival has banned selfies. It got me thinking about what it must be like to be a footballer with everybody having a mobile phone now. Twenty years ago I bet they could go out for a quiet meal or drink and might get a few autograph requests, maybe the odd photo but nobody was carrying cameras 24/7. Now, I bet they get asked for selfies 100 times a day. Everybody wants to have the picture up on Facebook and Instagram. I doubt if they can refuse either as it would be immediately on twitter that they are a **** or even in one of the papers where they have hotlines to call in.
It is the price of fame now I suppose but I think it would drive me mad.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
NEW THREAD
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2018/04/05/five-things-mike-ashley-must-do-to-keep-benitez-at-the-club-this-summer/
Olly Hawkins(Quote)