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The former Newcastle United captain has given his take on the Magpies attempts to qualify for the Champions League.
As an historic season that finally brought an end to United’s 70-year wait for major domestic silverware reaches its conclusion, Newcastle are battling with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest to claim one of the five Champions League places that are on offer in this season’s Premier League. As it stands after Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Brighton, Eddie Howe’s side sit in fourth place, one point behind City and level on points with Chelsea, who will visit St James Park on Sunday lunchtime.
Nottingham Forest sit just outside of the top five ahead of their Monday night visit to Crystal Palace and can move level with Newcastle and Chelsea with a win at Selhurst Park. Aston Villa also remain in the mix and sit three points behind the top five after Youri Tielemans got the only goal of their home win against Fulham on Saturday afternoon. For Newcastle, all focus now turns towards what will be a crunch St James Park meeting with Chelsea next weekend and former Magpies captain Shearer believes his old club must make the most of their final two home games if they want to secure a return to European football’s top table.
“They’ve got Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton, two home games. I would be hopeful and pretty confident they could win those two home games against Chelsea and Everton and maybe nick a point against Arsenal. They’re (Arsenal) not at it, are they? They’re not as good as they have been because of the situation they are in in the Champions League. I think six points will do it because we’ve got to play Chelsea, we’ve got to play Arsenal. Chelsea have got to play Forest on the last day of the season so I think six points will be enough for Newcastle.”
What did Alan Shearer say about VAR decisions in Brighton v Newcastle United?
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Sunday’s hard-earned point at Brighton could prove to be crucial in the race for the Champions League and it seemed the Magpies would emerge empty-handed from their long trip to the Amex Stadium. Howe’s side found themselves a goal down for a large proportion of the game after former United winger Yankuba Minteh netted against his old club for the second time this season. Newcastle were left frustrated when they were denied two penalties after initial on-field decisions were overturned by the VAR officials - but it was third-time lucky as Alexander Isak converted from the spot with two minutes left on the clock after a Fabian Schar free-kick was handled by Seagulls substitute Yasin Ayari.
Shearer admitted he had no complaints with the trio of penalty decisions and the involvement of VAR and described the draw as ‘a fair result’.
He said: “No, absolutely right, I totally agree with them. They were the correct decisions, I can’t argue with them. Before the game, because of Newcastle’s record at Brighton, I would have snapped your hands off for a point. Take the point, get the hell out of there and play Chelsea at home. It was a fair result.”
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