It's been not less than a miracle season for the Newcastle fans who were left fuming when Newcastle were relegated from the premier league in 2008/09.
A run of brilliant form is now getting them to the next level. The dream of playing European football is almost sure watching their current form. But whether it will be Champions League or Europa League remains a question! It's just a matter of 4 big games.
A winning streak of 6 games has kept them just above 5th placed Tottenham, and with Tottenham's poor run of form continuing with the defeat to Norwich City at home and QPR away, anything is possible. However, they can still catch up the third place if it goes like this. Arsenal was not called to be a contender for the fourth place when the season started. But they have come from outside to displace Tottenham at third and are three points clear from Newcastle and six from Tottenham with an extra game played.
This Newcastle team seems to be of entirely different mentality than that of 2 years back. They struggled through the sole effort of Kevin Nolan for the last few years, who is now not even in the team. The controversial sacking of manager Chris Hughton and the sell of players like Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll, Joey Barton and Jose Enrique, made everyone sure of Newcastle finishing in the lower half of the table. But with manager Alan Pardrew's hard work, some young signings and strong defense, they have put a stamp on mouth of those who were predicting the worst sitting on their chair.
The factors of this great run can be:
1. Strong defense with much stronger Tim Krul, which has notched 14 clean sheets till now.
2.. Signing of Papiss Demba Cisse, team-mate of Senegalese striker Demba Ba, who has reached double figures in goals with his Senegalese team-mate.
3. Return of Ben Arfa, who was out for most of the season and now forming a great partnership with Cisse.
However, the end of their dream run may come to an end when they meet the two richest team of the league, Chelsea and Manchester City, in a week's time. With an easy run of fixtures for Tottenham and probably Chelsea, it is unlikely for Newcastle to finish fourth. Meanwhile, Chelsea can ruin this all if they win the Champions League on May 19 at the Allianz Arena, Munich.
But this is why soccer excites us; we never know what happens next?
To read more about Champions League, English Premier League football, Euro and many more interesting facts about soccer, check http://normalfootball.blogspot.com
Article Source: Sarbesh_Rijal
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