Tuesday night couldn’t have gone much better for Newcastle United.
Not only did relegation rivals Burnley lose 2-0 to Leicester in their game in hand, Crystal Palace beat Stoke City 2-1 in the FA Cup; a result which means our scheduled clash with the Eagles on Sunday 20th March looks set to be postponed (as they will now be playing in the FA Cup that weekend).
So, why is this good news? Well, our current schedule has us down to play FIVE games in just 15 days between the 5th (Brighton at home) and the 20th (Palace at home) of March, meaning this seemingly imminent postponement could come at a good time for Eddie Howe.
The squad would have been facing Palace on the back of three straight away games at Southampton (10th), Chelsea (13th) and Everton (17th), making this the perfect opportunity to give our squad a rest; and potentially get the likes of Callum Wilson and/or Kieran Trippier back for when the fixture is rearranged.
As for Burnley – who would’ve moved out of the drop zone had they avoided defeat – they looked likely to grind out a point at one stage, only for late goals to arrive from Maddison and Vardy in the final 10 minutes to end the Clarets’ unbeaten run.
Here’s the updated Premier League table following that result at Turf Moor:
As for Newcastle’s upcoming fixtures, the next few weeks will look something like this once our clash with Crystal Palace (initially scheduled for 20th March) is rearranged following their progress to the FA Cup quarter finals:
- Brighton (H) – Saturday 5th March, 3pm
- Southampton (A) – Thursday 10th March, 7.30pm
- Chelsea (A) – Sunday 13th March, 2pm (Sky Sports)
- Everton (A) – Thursday, 17th March, 7.45pm (Amazon Prime)
- Spurs (A) – Sunday, 3rd April, 4.30pm (Sky Sports)
