Opta have predicted the Premier League standing with 10 sides still having a chance of Champions League football.
Bruno Guimaraes stretched onto the end of Harvey Barnes floated cross on Monday night to earn Newcastle three points at West Ham, seeing Eddie Howe’s side end the weekend’s fixtures in sixth – which would see them qualify for the Europa League
The Magpies will have to overtake one of Manchester City, Chelsea or Nottingham Forest before the end of the season if they are to qualify for European football’s premiere competition, and the experts expect the final standings to be tight.
Newcastle will finish in sixth, one point behind Chelsea in the final Champions League spot, according to predictions from a group of Opta experts.
They believe our chances of securing a top five finish is around 25.51%, finishing on an expected points tally of 63.37 behind Chelsea (64.3), Forest (66.43), Man City (66.98), Arsenal (75.8) while champions elect Liverpool will finish just shy of the 90 point total.
It’s set to go right down to the wire with an impossibly close four points expected to be the difference between third and sixth. This one very well might not be settled until the final whistle of the entire season on Sunday, May 25.
Newcastle’s run on paper for the final 10 league fixtures is a good one on paper; though that means nothing with how this season has panned out.
We return from the international break to face five sides in the bottom half of the Premier League in our next six, in addition to Aston Villa (a) on April 19.
A strong end to the season is absolutely vital with four high-stakes matches that will have a massive say on where we end up. Before playing Everton on the final day of the season, it’s Brighton (a), Chelsea (h) and Arsenal (a) as we face three sides we are directly competing with consecutively.
The fixture list in full for the rest of the season:
**Wednesday 2nd April –** Newcastle v Brentford (7.45pm)
**Monday 7th April –** Leicester v Newcastle (8pm)
**Sunday 13th April –** Newcastle v Man Utd (4.30pm)
**Wednesday 16th April –** Newcastle v Palace (7.30pm)
**Saturday 19th April –** Aston Villa v Newcastle (5.30pm)
**Saturday 26 April –** Newcastle v Ipswich (3pm)
**Saturday 3rd May –** Brighton v Newcastle TBC
**Saturday 10th May –** Newcastle v Chelsea TBC
**Sunday 18th May –** Arsenal v Newcastle TBC
**Sunday 25th May –** Newcastle v Everton (4pm)