Looking at the remaining games, Newcastle should be confident Champions League qualification

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Newcastle United should comfortably see out the season fending off the Champions League challenge of Tottenham looking at the remaining fixtures.

It’s never a certainty, but looking at who Newcastle, Manchester United and Tottenham have to play for their remaining games of the season and it should be Champions League for Newcastle in 2023/24.

Spurs have fewer games remaining and their fixtures throw up more tricky games than Newcastle and Manchester United’s.

Spurs have fewer games and trickier fixtures in the CL race

The London side still have to face in-form Aston Villa, who as we learned on Saturday, are no pushovers. Liverpool who, granted, haven’t been great this season, but are more than capable of taking a big scalp as Manchester United found out the hard way.

Add to that the fact that Spurs have Newcastle on Sunday and Manchester United the following week, they could realistically be out of Champions League contention as early as next weekend.

I may have been slightly optimistic when I was awarding the remaining points as far as Newcastle are concerned, but even so, there’s a significant margin for error in terms of Spurs catching Newcastle. I have us picking up another 18 points (I said I was optimistic) but I have Spurs only picking up another 10, so there’s plenty of room for me to be wrong but still see Newcastle claim that Champions League place.

I have Manchester United picking up 20 points which means we’ll have to make do with fourth place, but let’s be honest, if someone had said that we’d finish fourth this season back in August you’d have laughed in their face, especially if you told them the only signing we’d make in January would be Anthony Gordon.

Newcastle look more than comfortable for the Champions League places

Man United’s run in has them facing a lot of sides down the bottom of the table in which I’ve backed them to win, purely based on league position. However, as we’ve often seen, it’s those teams in the dogfight who quite often claim shock wins, so maybe I’ve overestimated Man U’s points total too.

This is what I’m basing my ramblings on. I don’t even have Man United beating Spurs next week, but should that happen, as I said, I think that’s Tottenham out of the top four race, provided we beat them on Sunday first.

Newcastle Pts Tottenham Pts Man United Pts

Tottenham (h)                   3             Newcastle (a)     0             Brighton (a)       3

Everton (a)                          3             Man U (h)           1             Tottenham (a)   1

Southampton (h)             3             Liverpool (a)       0             Aston Villa (h)   1

Arsenal (h)                          1             C Palace (h)        3             Brighton (a)       3

Leeds (a)                             3             Aston Villa (a)    0             West Ham (a)     3

Leicester (h)                       3             Brentford (h)      3             Wolves (h)         3

Chelsea (a)                          1             Leeds (a)            3             B’mouth (a)       3

Brighton (h)                        1                                                      Fulham (h)         3

                                           18                                       10                                    20

Obviously there’s plenty of things that could change but I definitely feel a lot more confident of Newcastle’s Champions League chances after looking at the run-ins.

In fact, I’d say that right now our biggest worry could be a late surge on the top four by Unai Emery‘s Aston Villa. In 2023 they’ve picked up more points than any other side in the Premier League except for Manchester City (that tweet was put out before City’s game on Saturday).

We’ve got the Champions League in the bag. Breathe. Relax.