This would seal it as the greatest Newcastle United season in living memory | OneFootball

In the run up to the League Cup Final, I was asked the question whether I’d take winning the cup or Champions League qualification, if I had to make a choice between the two.

I went for the cup and my wishes were emphatically delivered, courtesy of the forehead of a big lad from Blyth and the golden right boot of the Premier League’s greatest Swede.

Here’s the thing though, why can’t we have both?

With all the focus on our achievement at the weekend, the results that came in around the Premier League probably haven’t been talked about enough.

I think everyone recognised that they were a canny set of scorelines for Newcastle, with us having a week off from Premier League action, but if you dive deeper, things couldn’t really have gone much better for Eddie Howe and the lads.

Going into last weekend, Newcastle United were sitting in 6th place, two points behind 4th placed Chelsea. However, several clubs were looking to take advantage of Newcastle’s participation in the Carabao Cup final to improve their league position in the hunt for a top five finish.

Man City and Chelsea had the opportunity to stretch their advantage, which would have made Newcastle’s game in hand against Crystal Palace a must win to even stay in touch.

Meanwhile, positioned just below us in the table, Brighton and Bournemouth had the opportunity to leapfrog us and add insult to injury following victories on Tyneside earlier in the season.

What transpired was the ideal set of results to leave the prospect of Champions League football completely in our own hands moving into the final 10 games of the season.

Brighton’s point at Man City will certainly have been a morale boost to the Seagulls, but for Newcastle, it kept Many City within touching distance and it also kept Brighton behind us.

Chelsea’s routine loss against Arsenal meant their indifferent form continued and they were still only two points ahead of us.

Finally, Brentford’s continued run as Bournemouth’s kryptonite meant they also remained behind us in the table, with their form looking decidedly more patchy since their triumph at St James’ Park.

Leaving the Premier League table currently looking like this on Thursday 20 March 2025:

Looking ahead to the final 10 Newcastle United fixtures, it feels significant that our destiny is now in our own hands.

Three points from our game in hand at home to Crystal Palace currently equals 4th place. If getting that victory, then our job is simply to at least match the points totals of the other teams competing towards the top end.

If we manage this, there is nothing that can stop us from sealing a return to the Champions League.

We have one or two tricky fixtures to negotiate within those 10 games, trips to Villa Park, the AMEX and Emirates jump out.

In my opinion, if we can avoid defeat in the trips to Birmingham and Brighton, we’ll have put ourselves firmly in the driving seat.

The home fixture against Chelsea in May will also be a massive moment and has the potential to be this season’s Leicester, where we were able to seal Champions League qualification two years ago.

Chelsea have a particularly tricky run-in, rounded off with a final day trip to Nottingham Forest in what could be an all or nothing face off for a Champions League spot. Defeat for the Blues on Tyneside could be a crippling blow to their dreams of Europe which, I’m sure we’d all love to see.

If everyone; coaches, players and fans, can pull together, there is the chance to seal this as the greatest Newcastle United season in living memory.