Howe’s way pays off for Newcastle

This past weekend saw Newcastle United lifting their first domestic trophy in 70 years, Nottingham Forest consolidating their Champions League spot, Erling Haaland firing despite Manchester City tripping and under-fire Manchester United players showing a spirited response. Here are four key talking points.

Key to Magpies’ success is not anyhow, it’s Eddie Howe

There are talks of a new statue next to those of Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer at St James’ Park, and it will be very well deserved.

When Eddie Howe replaced Steve Bruce in November 2021, Newcastle were the only winless EPL team after 11 games and were languishing second from bottom.

Howe steadied the ship and helped the Magpies finish 11th that season, then fourth to qualify for the Champions League in 2023, before earning immortal status with the

League Cup win on March 16.

Despite the Toon Army heralding a new dawn with Saudi investment since 2021, two words HARD WORK remain in bold capital letters on a board in their training ground.

Known to be at his office before sunrise and working on video analysis into late nights, Howe sets the high-intensity standards that could be seen in the way his players pressed and played Liverpool off the park for the full 90 minutes in the League Cup final.

The meticulousness – he worked on their set pieces for two weeks – paid off when Dan Burn headed in from a corner for the opener.

They are now assured of a place in the Conference League play-offs, but can still move into fourth place in the league and be among the Champions League spots if they win their game in hand.

With more reinforcements, Newcastle could well be title contenders in the near future. But they will do well to hold on to Howe, who will surely be a candidate when the England job next becomes available.

Forest on course for Champions League return

Make no mistake about it, underdogs Nottingham Forest are the real deal, even with 18-goal top scorer Chris Wood misfiring in their last three games as they drew 0-0 with Arsenal, beat Manchester City 1-0 and then Ipswich 4-2 over the weekend to tighten their grip on third position. With nine games to go, they are five points in front of Chelsea and six ahead of City, with Newcastle United a further point back with a game in hand.

However, it seems there are still people not buying into the Forest hype. Most notably, new England manager Thomas Tuchel has snubbed their players for his first Three Lions squad.

Winger Callum Hudson-Odoi (five goals, two assists) and midfielder Elliot Anderson (one goal, six assists) have been key for their club throughout the season, but were not selected by Tuchel, who called up Forest captain Morgan Gibbs-White (five goals, seven assists) only because Chelsea’s Cole Palmer is injured.

But this will suit Forest’s ambitions just fine, as the two-time European champions seek a return to Europe’s premier club competition for the first time in 45 years, while chasing a first domestic cup in 35 years. They are highest-ranked team in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Another feather in Haaland’s cap

Another league win for leaders Liverpool and another league defeat for Manchester City will spell the end of the Citizens’ title defence, but Erling Haaland’s chase for a third consecutive EPL Golden Boot continues with nine games to go. The Norwegian took his league tally to 21 goals with his strike against Brighton, as he trails Mohamed Salah by six.

The 24-year-old has become the fastest player to reach 100 EPL goal contributions, taking 94 games to notch 84 goals and 16 assists. The previous record was held by Shearer, who took six more matches to reach the milestone.

City next play Bournemouth in the FA Cup quarter-finals, which represents their last realistic chance for silverware this season, but they will need to keep their eyes firmly on the top four in the EPL.

Currently fifth, they risk losing their prized striker if they are out of the Champions League next season, with Real Madrid potentially swooping in to form a sensational trident of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and Haaland.

‘Overpaid’ Red Devils prove a point

In a week when Rasmus Hojlund, Andre Onana and Casemiro were

labelled overpaid by Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe,

these three players provided the perfect response in a 3-0 away win at Leicester City.

Onana was sharp in coming off his line to deal with an awkward bounce that caught Victor Lindelof off guard and prevented Jamie Vardy from stealing in to score the opener.

Rasmus Hojlund then ended a 21-game goal drought with the opener, while Casemiro came on in the 69th minute and helped the team extend their advantage and keep a clean sheet.

Sure, this was against a woeful, relegation-bound side, and there is still a lot of work to be done with a mediocre team, but the fallen giants will gladly take another three-goal win following their 4-1 Europa League victory over Real Sociedad.

At a time when lots of unnecessary and embarrassing things have been said by Ratcliffe, it would be encouraging for United fans to know that their team are doing their talking on the pitch.