Every point matters in this season’s Premier League, particularly with the race for Champions League football looking increasingly likely to go down to the final few games.

Fortunately for us, however, our games in hand over the rest of the chasing pack puts us in perhaps the most favourable position to qualify for next season’s top European competition.

We have our job to do against Man Utd in today’s 4.30pm kick-off, but results yesterday s

Favours from Everton and Leicester

Despite Brighton being a thorn in our side for much of the campaign, it’s looking likely that Fabian Hürzeler’ Seagulls won’t be one to worry about catching us.

Leicester, who we comfortably beat 3-0 on Monday night, came back from behind twice to deny Brighton a win that would have put them within three points of us. Instead, we’ll now go eight clear of them with a win today.

Nottingham Forest meanwhile have seen their grip on third place loosened for the second week in a row, after Everton snatched a late winner at the City Ground thanks to a 94th minute winner from Abdoulaye Doucoure.

This now hands us a huge opportunity heading into our two games in hand, as we can now leapfrog Nuno’s side and move into third place should we beat Man Utd and Crystal Palace over the next four days.

City and Villa stay in the chase

Onto Man City, it looked at one point like their UCL hopes were dealt a hammer blow when Crystal Palace raced into a 2-0 lead in Saturday’s earlier kick-off.

But Guardiola’s men, in particular Kevin De Bruyne, rallied back and from there scored five without reply to win 5-2, seeing them move two points above us and back up to fourth.

Aston Villa meanwhile, even with their focus on the Champions League and FA Cup, remain a threat. Their fantastic bench options won them the game against already-relegated Southampton in a 3-0 win, making our game against them next Saturday even more vital.

Looking ahead to Manchester United

As things stand, the mission stays the same on Tyneside: keep winning, and there’s nothing anyone else in the league can do.

A win against Manchester United on Sunday would propel us back into the top four, and see us complete our first league double over the Red Devils for close to a century.

Perhaps more importantly, a win at St James’ Park sees us go within one point of Nottingham Forest, where if we get at least a point in our game in hand against Crystal Palace, will see us ascend to third place on goal difference.