Things have been improving steadily for Newcastle United during this final stretch of the season. results and performances have been improving (although we have had the odd dodgy showing along the way) and last weekend’s performance at home to Tottenham was superb.
I’m travelling at the moment overseas and almost missed the game as kick-off was very early in the morning in Brazil, and I couldn’t find a bar open showing the footy. Luckily I managed to get TNT Sports running on my phone, using what I consider to be the best VPN provider at my disposal. Not all of them can get the job done as TNT Sports can pick the I.P. addresses up and block the application, but fortunately, I was able to watch the action in a cafe near my Airbnb and didn’t miss any of the goals, as my VPN doesn’t have this issue.
Now with that glorious win at Saint James’ Park, The Toon sits in sixth place ten points behind the side we smashed 4-0 on Sunday. So this begs the question can we catch Tottenham Hotspur and secure another season of European football?
Possible Routes To Europe
Fifth place currently looks like the most likely avenue for Newcastle United to get into Europe. With Manchester United and Chelsea being possible F.A Cup winners, Newcastle would need Man City to win the competition. It is Man City so this, of course, is very possible and sixth place could become enough for Europa League qualification, but they are still fighting for the league title and are also still in the Champions League, although this may change after tomorrow’s game against Real Madrid at The Etihad.
The added incentive of getting fifth place of course is the added bonus that if the coefficient is high enough, fifth place could well become a Champions League spot. How far English teams manage to progress in their respective European competitions will affect this, so let’s pray that the Premier League teams manage to get the job done.
Can Newcastle Catch Tottenham Or Aston Villa?
Now I think Aston Villa are out of sight, that win against Arsenal puts us thirteen points behind them and I don’t think they will drop enough points and will end up in that coveted fourth spot.
Tottenham However could be a different story. Their run-in is horrible! They still have Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea to play. I know they have a ten-point lead over Newcastle at the time of writing, but potentially they could lose all of those games,and drop twelve points.
Newcastle have a much easier run-in the other hand and is a complete contrast to what Tottenham are facing. Our toughest game is arguably our away trip to Old Trafford, but you never know which Manchester United side is going to turn up so we could well leave Manchester with all three points. The rest of our games are made up of primarily teams in the bottom half of the table Burnley and Sheffield United still to play. These are games you would expect us to win.
Will We Do It?
I am optimistic and have a feeling we may well catch Tottenham. Spurs have a history of messing things up towards the end of the season (Spursy) and with their run-in I don’t think ten points is an insurmountable task. Of course, we would also have to be near perfect to get the job done, but if we play like we did last weekend for the remaining games of the season, we may well get into Europe for a second season in a row.
