**Newcastle United have spent pretty much the entire season in the bottom half of the Premier League. Any moments in the top half have been extremely fleeting.**
While Newcastle find themselves in the quarter final of the Carabao Cup and are sitting in the automatic qualifying spots of the Champions League table, they currently occupy 13th spot in the Premier League.
The Magpies have been notoriously slow starters in the Premier League anyway, but usually by now the results are starting to turn in our favour.
Last season, we went on a fantastic run over Christmas, and we're going to need to repeat that again this season to get things back on track with European qualification through league finish looking less and less likely each week.
Eddie Howe says they need to get better at preparing for games in different competitions
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Eddie Howe is extremely concerned by the league form and told reporters that they're now chasing results to get back to where they should be.
> "Of course, it's a concern when you're not where you want to be, because you're in a position where you're chasing results, and I feel that's where we are at the moment. We haven't hit our rhythm in the Premier League, not consistently. We've had some highs, certainly today's a low.
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> "When we're going from competition to competition, of course, the focus changes very quickly. We don't have long to get back into Premier League mode, so that's a challenge we have to adapt to better."
Are the players subconsciously eyeing cup glory over Premier League position?
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It makes us wonder if the Premier League has been given a lower importance this season, given how well we're doing in other competitions.
We're sure it's not a conscious choice; we don't think for one second that anyone at the club would forego the Premier League placement in favour of other competitions, but perhaps somewhere in the back of their minds, they're thinking that they have another chance to lift silverware, and that's what they're focusing on.
That's our crackpot theory of the day, that even we don't fully believe. We're just grasping at straws to find ways to cope with yesterday's game.