Newcastle have a decent chance of reaching 4th place in the league this season.
Alan Pardew - will keep Newcastle players focused
And it’s got as much to do with the difficulties the other two teams competing for Newcastle have, than with Newcastle current excellent form of winning five league games on the trot.
The two teams competing with Newcastle for 4th place are Chelsea and Tottenham - two London teams, who have their own unique problems.
Chelsea are in the midst of a fixture pile-up, created by their own recent successes, as they face Barcelona on Wednesday in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final.
In the next 27 days until the last league game of the season on 13th May, Chelsea have 7 games to play including Newcastle on 2nd May at Stamford Bridge, just three days before they meet Liverpool at Wembley in the FA Cup final.
They’ll have eight games to play if they get to the Champions League final, against either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, but that takes place on Saturday 19th May, at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
And Tottenham, who were beaten 5-1 yesterday at Wembley by the Blues in the FA Cup semi-final, have gone off the boil, and are in a miserable slump at the moment.
In the 8 league games they have played since hammering Newcastle 5-0 at White Hart Lane on 11th February, they have only one win and 6 points, and in that time Newcastle have gained 11 points on Spurs.
So it looks like the stars have aligned to give Newcastle a decent chance of reaching 4th place in the league this season – amazing as that seems.
The key will be for the Newcastle players to keep their feet firmly on the ground, and try to beat Stoke City on Saturday, as injured players like Leon Best, Dabby Guthrie and Cheick Tiote are ready to play again, after recovering from injuries.
The two games after that are going to be tough with games at Wigan on Saturday 28th April, and of course the Latics beat Manchester United last week on merit at the DW Stadium.
And then we face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge the following Wednesday.
The final two games are against an improving Manchester City side at home on Sunday 6th May, followed by our last game of the season at Goodison Park on Sunday, 13th May – unlucky for some.
Howay The Lads!!
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