With Tottenham thumping Rochdale 6-1 at Wembley last night they go through to the next round of the FA Cup, and that means our game at Wembley on Friday, March 16th will need to be rearranged.
With the two-week International break coming in the final two weeks of March that means after the next two games – at Liverpool on Saturday and at home to the Saints the Saturday after we will have no games for three weeks.
That home game against Southampton is going to be so important, and our players have to play at their very best to get the win – one reason for that is because fans have a long three weeks to wait before our next game.
A smiling and confident Rafa Benitez
If we don’t win, that wait is going to feel a lot more than just three weeks!
🙁
But the long break could be good news for Newcastle with players like Islam Slimani, Jonjo Shelvey, and Dwight Gayle currently nursing injuries.
And we reported news yesterday that Algerian manager, Rabah Madjer, wants Islam to be part of the next Algeria squad for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Gambia.
It will be interesting to see if Rafa even allows the Algerian to join the squad for that game.
The three weeks can serve two purposes:
- Allow our injured players time to fully recover
- Give Rafa plenty of time on the training pitch as he further organizes Newcastle into a team that’s difficult to beat and can win some games down the stretch.
The game on 31st March is at home to Huddersfield – so there are two home games in succession we must win at home.
As we keep saying we need wins to get away from the drop zone.
Maybe only 3 wins are now required, and that will take us to 38 points, just one point more than we got two years ago.
But Rafa will want to get more than 40 points – for sure.
Not many fans think we can win the game on on Saturday.
Comments welcome
2 comments so far
Lindisfarne
Mar 1, 2018 at 3:58 PM
Comment #1Looks like there is 7 days between each match, but with the postponed away game it is likely a mid week match will be arranged.
03-03-2018 Liverpool vs Newcastle United
10-03-2018 Newcastle United vs Southampton
16-03-2018 Tottenham vs Newcastle United ###postpone###
31-03-2018 Newcastle United vs Huddersfield
07-04-2018 Leicester vs Newcastle United
15-04-2018 Newcastle United vs Arsenal
21-04-2018 Everton vs Newcastle United
28-04-2018 Newcastle United vs West Bromwich Albion
05-05-2018 Watford vs Newcastle United
13-05-2018 Newcastle United vs Chelsea
RobLeenio
Mar 1, 2018 at 4:37 PM
Comment #2Lindi, thanks for posting that fixture list. It’s interesting, I think there are three very winnable games at home to Saints, Hudds and West Brom and I think we’ll get something at home to Arsenal and Chelsea and away to Everton. That would make a minimum of 11 points for us to bring home, giving us a total of 40 at the end of the season. I think that’s a conservative estimate also, it could end higher (it could also end lower, but I’m being positive).