Newcastle's Champions League chances

well there you go. that's a record I expect we'll be setting.

 

Chelsea have Arsenal and Liverpool to play away. There's a decent chance of them picking up nothing from those two games. If they beat Arsenal, that's not a bad result either, brings Arsenal back into it and they have their own banana-skin fixtures such as Stoke and WBA away. Spurs are facing 4 of the bottom 6 plus Fulham, anything can happen when playing sides who are fighting for survival, Wigan just beat us so Spurs have a tough task on their hands.

I can't call it, with Spurs and Chelsea's fixture pile-up, the what-if's and maybe's such as United beating City at Eastlands to win the league, or vise versa and City closing the gap and needing wins, who knows? It's the most exciting race for 3rd/4th we've seen in a while, but as a neutral I'd prefer Arsenal and Newcastle to finish 3rd/4th in any order.

 

A lot depends on other events in terms of how you view our fixtures. If United put the title to bed, we may meet yourselves very much down in the dumps. I'm sure St James Park would be the last place they'll fancy if things haven't worked out. The key thing for City is to keep everyone together and learn from the experience if it doesn't happen this year. Fergusons savvy and the fact the club has been through this scenario for the last 20 seasons has been the key difference for me. No shame in losing it to them either even if it will stick in the throat a little.

Everton could be a cup final by the time we meet, if so we may face a significantly weakened side. They're a very good side in red hot form so at full strength it will be tough. But we seem to have a real nuggety feel and togetherness about our squad so it is not unthinkable we could get something if we're still firing on all cylinders. Chelsea away will be tough and I don't think there is any danger of them getting to a CL final to distract them. That said they'll have to manage thing because they have the CL games and the FA Cup. Wigan will be a tough fixture and potentially our toughest depending on how the various other scenarios pan out. They have played better than their results suggest. I've heard people say they're in a false position but I'm not a big believer in that. You are where you always deserve to be in football bar unusual circumstances.

Stoke could be tough and they will undoubtedly feel they owe us one. Pardew completely outthought Pulis and I've never seen him so wound up and frustrated. He won't have forgotten that experience and will be out for revenge. However we should be fresh after the break and I'm hopeful our quality will see us through that one. It'll be an important one for us to set us up for the final 4.

I think it is difficult to call because we have so many teams with other balls in the air. That has to be an advantage I suppose. We just need to concentrate on ourselves. I think we'll need a minimum of 10 points for CL qualification