Relief for Newcastle? - Top five rivals miss chance and suffer big injury scare

Time is running out in the race for Champions League qualification, and another of our rivals has been in action after a pretty mixed weekend of results across the Premier League.

Even with the cushion of Conference League football guaranteed for the 2025/26 campaign, finishing as high up in the table remains top priority at the club, with a top-five finish and qualification for Europe's elite competition massive to keep this project heading in the right direction.

Here’s how things stand with three games left to play this season and the latest after Nottingham Forest's trip to Crystal Palace last night:

Monday night draw and injury worry?

Man City continued their relentless run of form with their win over Wolves on Friday, whilst Aston Villa edged out Fulham at Villa Park and Chelsea beat a much-changed Liverpool side 3-1 on Sunday to move level on points with Newcastle.

But Monday night saw Nottingham Forest again drop points after they drew 1-1 with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, with a deflected goal from Murillo cancelling out an Ebere Eze penalty past Matz Sels.

Nuno Santo’s side missed a chance to draw level and remain in 6th on 61 points, two points behind us and Chelsea, but with a favourable pair of fixtures ahead of them in Leicester and then West Ham.

However, Forest's point also came at a cost, with star centre-back Murillo forced off with a hamstring injury. Considering his performances this season and partnership with Milenkovic, it would be a huge blow for them if he was to miss their final three fixtures.

As of Tuesday morning, here is how the Premier League table looks with all sides having just three games to play:

Crunch clash with Chelsea made more crucial

After our 1-1 draw away to Brighton, hopes were high that Liverpool would get the job done at Stamford Bridge and deal a hammer blow to Chelsea’s Champions League hopes.

Our own hopes of this happening were dashed in under five minutes as Enzo Fernandez opened the scoring, before a Jarell Quansah own-goal and Cole Palmer penalty saw the Blues win 3-1.

This now puts us level on both points and goal difference with Chelsea, making our next game at St James’ Park even more of a must win.

What do Newcastle need to do to qualify for the Champions League?

Destiny remains in our own hands, but things are certainly starting to get a bit nervy.

We’ve already beaten Chelsea at St James’ Park once this season, 2-0 back in October in the Carabao Cup, and slaughtered the Blues 4-1 when we last hosted them in the league. A win is needed and a huge effort required from everyone to help us over the line.

From there, a win against Arsenal would guarantee us at least Europa League football barring a miraculous swing in goal difference between ourselves and Aston Villa.

Should it come down to the final day, we face Everton, who like Brighton have become a tricky team for us in recent times. But two wins out of remaining three games should be enough, especially considering one of Nottingham Forest and Chelsea are guaranteed to drop points on the final day when the two sides meet on the final day.

We can’t expect any favours from other teams after this recent round of fixtures, it’s now solely up to the lads if we are to qualify for the Champions League next season.