It is now or never for Newcastle United

Newcastle United can be in a Champions League qualifying position in 19 days time.

I am just putting this out there now, before it happens, possibly.

No, I haven’t gone mad, this is the Premier League reality that now presents itself to Newcastle United.

No doubt plenty of you will be saying, nonsense, Eddie Howe and his players are fourteenth in the table with 18 rounds of Premier League matches played, how on earth in 19 days time will that suddenly become Newcastle United ending up top five?

Firstly, this has been a very strange league season so far, not only Newcastle having an up and down season when it comes to form.

No Premier League team outside the top four has won more than eight of their 18 PL matches, this has led to a very congested table. Newcastle United are 14th in the table but only six points off fifth and a Champions League qualifying position. Chelsea are fifth on 29 points.

As a comparison, after 18 games of the 2023/24 Premier League season, Spurs were fifth on 36 points and eight teams had won nine or more PL matches, all of the top five having won 11 or more.

In a 2025/26 Premier League season where almost all of the clubs are struggling to put a consistent run of form together, it presents a great opportunity for any team that can suddenly do so.

Which brings me back to Newcastle United and my secondly…reason for thinking it is more than possible for Eddie Howe and his players to reboot their league campaign.

It is now or never

Obviously the opportunity still has to be grasped BUT the opportunity is for certain there.

In less than three short weeks, Newcastle United could pick up 12 points from their next four Premier League matches.

Please note, I said ‘could’ and not ‘will’, at the same time though this is a huge opportunity to transform our place in the Premier League table.

Tuesday 30 December 2025 is Burnley away.

Burnley haven’t won a match since October, have picked up only two points from a possible 27 and lost seven of their last nine, with two draws.

Sunday 4 January 2026 is Crystal Palace at home

Palace have seen their form fall off a cliff. Losing their last four games in all competitions, with a number of key players missing due to injuries and the AFCON. In their last three Premier League matches they have conceded eight goals and only scored one. We can’t have any complaints either with the timing of this one, Newcastle have five days between matches whilst Palace only have three, they have a London derby against Fulham on Thursday night and I guess they will throw everything at that home match to try and get a much needed win. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Oliver Glasner feeling the need to rest some currently available key players for the Newcastle match.

Wednesday 7 January 2026 is Leeds at home

On current form this looks probably the most difficult of these next four Newcastle matches.

However, whilst they are unbeaten in their last five PL games, when you look closer, there is a lot of optimism as to why Newcastle could and should beat them. Leeds have only won three of their last 13 PL matches and they are massively reliant on their home form (sounds familiar???). They have only won one away game out of ten played in all competitions and that sole victory on the road was back in September against rock bottom Wolves. Which brings me to…

Sunday 18 January 2026 is Wolves away

I don’t think much needs to be said to explain why Newcastle United should be winning at Molineux. Wolves have lost all of their last 11 PL matches and only have two points from a possible 54 in total, they are promising to absolutely smash all previous records for lowest points total.

As I said above, it is really now or never. This very generous run of PL fixtures has to be taken advantage of.

These are four very winnable matches and if Newcastle United play well, they can win all four.

As well as the generous upcoming run of matches, I think we might just be also set to turn a corner when it comes to have some additional key selection options.

Nick Pope could return in goal tonight, whilst at the other end of the pitch, Yoane Wissa must now be very close to becoming available to evenly share the workload up front with Nick Woltemade. Eddie Howe having been forced to give him plenty time to get fully fit.

The Head Coach has also said that a large proportion of the others currently on the injured list are all now getting close to returning as well. I think that especially in the defensive areas this will be a big help and mean that the same players don’t have to start every single match, plus Lewis Miley set to become available again to play in midfield. Joelinton had/has been carrying a groin issue and hopefully by giving him some time out, it will mean Eddie Howe will also have the Brazil international fully available again.

Yes, yes, yes, I know plenty of you will be saying it could go the other way.

Which I think is only fair considering Newcastle United have only won six of 18 so far in the league.

Nonetheless, this is the best run of matches we have had all season when it comes to potentially getting points.

After these next four PL games I think we will in reality be able to see either the season condemned as a write off and going to end in no man’s land, somewhere in mid-table, maybe even lower mid-table. Or these four games will have proved the league season reboot that Newcastle United needed.

I think ten points minimum is needed from the four games and that starts tonight at Turf Moor, three points and doubling the number of PL away wins this season. Every journey starts with a single step…