Daniel Wales and Joe Buck discuss how significant Newcastle United qualifying for the Champions League would be.
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00:00Newcastle United were certainly handed a big favour by Manchester City on Tuesday evening
00:06as Pep Guardiola's side defeated Aston Villa by two goals to one at the Etihad in the Premier League.
00:12The result of this is that if Newcastle are now to go and beat Ipswich Town in the Premier League
00:17on Saturday afternoon at St James' Park, they would restore a five-point gap between themselves and Aston Villa.
00:23Many Newcastle fans are of the mind that because of Manchester City's know-how and experience
00:28of qualifying for the Champions League, despite what has been a rocky season for Manchester City,
00:32they were probably always going to qualify for the top five and in doing so get in the Champions League.
00:38And therefore for Newcastle, it's more a case of finishing above two of the other teams involved in the race.
00:43So Chelsea, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest.
00:46Certainly therefore, by having a five-point gap to Aston Villa, which they would achieve by beating Ipswich,
00:52as mentioned, would be really, really beneficial for Newcastle's chances of qualifying for the top five.
00:57It would mean that Aston Villa would probably have to go and win the majority of their remaining games
01:02in the Premier League this season.
01:03Of course, Newcastle still have to play Chelsea too.
01:06And if they won that game, that would certainly be a big boost.
01:08So let's go now to Joe Buck of the Shields Gazette.
01:11Joe, how big of an achievement would it be for Newcastle to qualify for the Champions League,
01:16given their relative squad depth compared to those around them?
01:19And of course, just how important was that win of Manchester City's against Aston Villa on Tuesday evening?
01:27Yeah, absolutely. I think you're right.
01:28The disappointment on Saturday night was probably the manner they got beat.
01:31I think everyone acknowledged it was going to be a tough game,
01:34but the manner of the defeat and the fact that you never really felt like they were going to get anything from the game.
01:40Obviously, they went behind after 30 seconds.
01:41And even when Cher scored, it didn't look like they were going to, you know,
01:44it felt like it was built on sand and the foundations weren't very strong.
01:47Villa were really good. You've got to give them that.
01:49But as you say, you know, Tuesday night, that was sort of forgotten about almost instantly with Man City's late goal.
01:56It was, yeah, it was a weird feeling, sort of wanting Manchester City to score,
02:00but then also not wanting them to score at the same time, not knowing if actually Aston Villa a goal was better.
02:04It was like lots of permutations and no one really knew what the best outcome was.
02:08But I do think that late Man City goal was probably the best outcome for Newcastle.
02:12You can assume Man City, Liverpool and obviously Arsenal will be there.
02:15So they've just got to then finish above two of Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Villa.
02:19And I think they are able to do that.
02:21I think it helps them, the fact they've got Ipswich this weekend.
02:24It's a nice fixture to hopefully open up a five-point gap.
02:28I hope we're not splitting here next week, saying I can't believe Newcastle will miss the opportunity.
02:31But yeah, it's a nice fixture.
02:33Obviously, Forest and Villa and Man City have also got FA Cup,
02:36so their attention will be slightly, you know, distracted this weekend.
02:40And yeah, with Chelsea to come before the end of the season,
02:44that game just looks massive at St. James.
02:46It was always going to be massive, but it looks huge now.
02:48But I think they're in a good position.
02:50They'll be happy with the position.
02:51If you'd said, you know, beginning of this year,
02:53that this is where they'll be with four games to go, five games to go, sorry,
02:56they would have took it without a shadow of a doubt.
02:58So yeah, it's a nice place from the beginning.
03:00Nice that they're going to be setting the pace, hopefully, come this weekend,
03:04rather than, you know, being a team that's chasing it.
03:06We saw a couple of years ago, they sort of stumbled over the line with, you know,
03:09a couple of draws and defeats towards the end of the season.
03:11But hopefully they can get enough points in the bag now and next week against Brighton
03:16and then Chelsea to come.
03:17It doesn't go down to those last two games because Arsenal away
03:20and then Everton at home, sorry, in the last game of the season is going to be
03:23not the ideal opportunity, you know, not ideal games for them to get points.
03:27So yeah, hopefully they can get a win this weekend and set the pace.
03:29As I said, Jason Tindall, Eddie Howe,
03:31and everyone would have took that sort of a couple of months ago.
03:33You've got the start of 11, which has started the last seven games,
03:36Anthony Gordon on the bench, obviously, and then Sven Botman and Lewis Hall.
03:39And that's probably it for like, so there's your 14, you know, the top level.
03:44So, but yeah, it's been a really good job from Howe and Tindall to have gone sort of
03:47three transfer windows without a real first team sign.
03:50And the only one that really made in that time was Lloyd Kelly,
03:53and he's obviously now at Juventus.
03:54So yeah, so we've gone that long and still be competing.
03:57And then not just be competing and hanging on, you know,
03:59as I said before, they're hopefully setting the pace.
04:01It is a remarkable job.
04:03And yeah, like, don't get me wrong, it would be nice to have Villa's options.
04:06You know, when you look at, as I say, the subs the other day,
04:08Newcastle's five subs, three of them were there before the takeover.
04:11One was Gordon, of course, and the other was Matt Target,
04:14who was brought in pretty much, you know, in that first window.
04:18So yeah, it's, your credit's got to go to Howe and Tindall.
04:21But I think, you know, a lot of credit as well has got to go to Jason Tindall.
04:24Over the last week, I know they got beat by Villa,
04:25but to get them wins over Manu and Palace were absolutely huge.
04:28And to do it in style as well, you know, 9-1 on aggregate over them two games,
04:32that was massive.
04:33And that really, sort of, you could see the belief returning to the team,
04:36or if they didn't believe, they certainly do now.
04:38And the fans, I think, are sort of believing now,
04:40especially after them two wins, that they can go on and do it.