Newcastle’s top-five rivals suffer double blow as Champions League race nears finish
Saturday was a day to forget for Newcastle United’s top-five rivals Aston Villa with crashing out of the FA Cup being far from their only concern.
Our comfortable victory over Ipswich Town saw us reclaim third and begin to stretch distance between Villa, while Chelsea have also started to create a gap with Unai Emery’s side as the Blues edged past Everton - with some relevant news in that game we’ll loop back to later.
April has seen Villa knocked out of the Champions League by PSG, out of the FA Cup by Crystal Palace and now in a weakened league position ahead of the final four games.
There’ll also be huge pressure on Nottingham Forest on Thursday night, where they take on Brentford in a bid to reclaim third spot. They fell to sixth on Saturday and lost today’s cup semi final against Man City 2-0.
Injury blow and five point gap
Newcastle were handed two massive boosts on Saturday as Aston Villa were embarrassed at Wembley by Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-finals.
There was truthfully only one side in it under the arches as Palace outshone Villa both on the pitch and in the stands as the Eagles flew to a 3-0 victory to compound bad news for our top-five chasing rivals.
Marcus Rashford has refound his form since switching from Manchester to Birmingham but the winger was not included in the squad on Saturday, with Unai Emery confirming the loanee has suffered a hamstring injury and is expected to be out for "some weeks"
It was a second successive defeat for the Villans, who lost at City in midweek, meaning our victory over Ipswich Town now sees us go five points clear of the side in seventh. A bad day in the office for the Holte End.
Two more boosts
Newcastle have also been handed two more boosts as we prepare for four vital games to end our season with every point sure to make a difference in an incredibly tight pack competing for Champions League.
It continues next Sunday against a Brighton side who will be without Joao Pedro, who will be serving the second of his three game suspension after lashing out at Brentford defender Nathan Collins on the hour mark on Easter weekend.
We then have what is at the very least a ‘must not lose’ game against Chelsea, before we look to continue our perfect record against Arsenal and make it four wins from four against the Gunners this season.
Everton will then travel to St. James’ Park to close out the 2024/25 campaign without James Tarkowski in their matchday squad with the defender ruled out for the season with a hamstring injury.
