Newcastle handed double boost ahead of two upcoming Premier League games
Even after yesterday’s frustrating defeat to Aston Villa, we still remain in 3rd place and leading the way in terms of who will qualify for a Champions League spot in the current chasing pack of teams.
And after Saturday’s day of action in the Premier League, we may have been handed a major boost in two of our five remaining games.
With crunch games against Arsenal and Chelsea amongst those five games, it’s important we capitalise on moments and rare bits of fortune like this:
Former target suspended for Brighton trip
During Brighton’s game away to Brentford at the GTech Community Stadium, Brazilian forward Joao Pedro was sent off for violent conduct due to an off-the-ball incident.
Being a straight red card, this means the 23-year-old will now miss the Seagull’s game against West Ham, and then the subsequent game against us.
The Amex, aside from being one of the longest away days in the league for us, has shown to be a ground where we haven’t had much luck in recent years, particularly this time last season where we drew 1-1 with the hosts.
But without their top scorer this season, we’ve just been handed a significant advantage in what’s now become a must-win game against an opponent who have already beaten us twice this season.
Here’s hoping that Danny Welbeck doesn’t find his scoring boots again on the 4th of May…
Everton stalwart to miss final day?
Elsewhere in the Premier League, it was a mixed afternoon for us in terms of what was going on at Goodison Park.
Manchester City, who now sit just one point behind us in the table, won away at Everton in a game we really needed the Toffees to try and be as resolute and stubborn as possible in.
But much of that resoluteness in defence fell apart when James Tarkowski abruptly came off the pitch with a hamstring injury, signalling immediately that he’d felt it go.
Although nothing is confirmed just yet, and the Everton skipper is due to be assessed this week, the absence of Tarkowski and the aforementioned Pedro for Brighton may settle the nerves many of our fans have against two of our more ‘tricky’ opponents left to come this season.
