Alan Shearer predicts final top five after bad weekend for Newcastle

With the title destined to be heading to Liverpool, and all three promoted sides set to be going straight back down, the race for Champions League football stands out as the one thing teams are left fighting for this season.

Ourselves, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest are five teams competing for three places, which mean it’s going to be a brutal final few weeks in the Premier League for two of those sides.

And now, after a bruising set of results for Newcastle, Alan Shearer has now given his verdict on where he thinks the Mags will finish this season.

Alan Shearer on Newcastle’s top five hopes

Speaking on Sunday’s Match of the Day 2 with Mark Chapman and Ashley Williams, Shearer was asked to predict who out of the five teams in the European places would make the cut and who would have to settle for the Europa and Conference Leagues.

And despite a brutal put down of our recent performance against Aston Villa, Shearer still backs us to get the job done.

“It’s hard enough to predict results anyway, but at this stage of the season, it’s almost impossible.”

“But my guess will be…maybe Chelsea and Forest may miss out.”

Ashley Williams weighs in

In response to Shearer, Williams has also given us the nod in regards to qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

“I think that Forest/Chelsea game at the end of the season could be an interesting one, but you just don’t know, because with the cup games, you don’t know who’s gonna be fighting for what.”

“Manchester City will feel confident looking at that, plus your (Shearer’s) boys Newcastle will probably feel good about it.”

“Newcastle, City, and the way Villa are playing, they’ll be in.”

As the only side without domestic or continental football exploits to worry about this season, we have the advantage of having the least amount of games to play and only one aim: bringing Champions League football home.

We control our own destiny at the moment, and we can hope that our favourable game against Ipswich open the gap more on City and Villa, who play each other next, as well as Forest and Chelsea who have cup semi-finals to worry about as well.