We’re officially in May, and we’re still no closer to seeing a clear favourite to qualify for next season’s Champions League campaign.

With just over four games to go of our season, Newcastle are still locked in a tense battle for the top five with Man City, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa.

Ahead of a crunch fixture against Brighton on Sunday afternoon, and following the first batch of fixtures from this gameweek, here’s how things stand:

No favours as City and Villa put pressure on

Heading into the Friday night’s kick off between Man City and Wolves, we precariously sat in 3rd place on 62 points, one clear of Pep Guardiola’s side.

But Wolves, one of the most in-form teams in Europe at the moment, just could not capitalise on their chances as a Kevin De Bruyne dagger midway through the first half helped lift City to 64 points. This puts them two ahead of us but having played an extra game.

And we couldn’t rely on Fulham to do us any favours either, despite the Cottagers penchant for taking big scalps this season.

Aston Villa grabbed a vital three points at Villa Park 1-0 thanks to a Youri Tielemans goal, restoring some momentum for Emery’s side after their previous losses to Man City and Crystal Palace.

The results mean that Villa are still two points behind us, and we have a game in hand, but their trio of fixtures against an out-of-form Bournemouth plus Spurs and Man Utd sides who will be far more occupied with the Europa League could see them eyeing up nine points from their last nine.

As for Chelsea, they take on Liverpool at Stamford Bridge at 4.30pm tomorrow in the Sky Sports slot after our 2pm kick off at the AMEX.

Cup Final Approach Needed

It may be sound cliche at this point, but Sunday afternoon’s game at the AMEX truly has become a cup final for us in terms of its significance.

We travel to a stadium where we have a mixed record, against an opponent who’ve beaten us twice already, knowing anything less than a win could open the door for another team to capitalise.

Thankfully, we boast the form and goalscoring ability to decisively get all three points, particularly against this leaky Brighton side.

A win takes us back up to 3rd place ahead of City, and widens the gap over Villa to five points – in short, beating Brighton has become even more must win. Howay the Lads!