Eddie Howe says Champions League qualification ‘an expectation' for Newcastle
The fourth-placed Magpies entertain Chelsea on Sunday with the clubs locked together on points and goal difference. Howe's side are currently ahead on goals scored, with both engaged in a six-way fight with Arsenal, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa for a top-five finish.
Whatever happens over the remaining weeks of the campaign, Newcastle will emerge from it with a first major domestic trophy in 70 years, but head coach Howe is not settling for that.
Asked if winning the Carabao Cup had left the club free from expectation for the remainder of the season, he said: 'We feel an expectation, certainly internally, to try to deliver Champions League football.
'It was an expectation that we placed upon ourselves, so I get what you're trying to say, but I don't necessarily feel it feels that way internally.
'Winning the cup final, I think, gave us a freedom and a new-found confidence off the back of achieving that – that gave us a bounce in the next few games. We elevated our performance off the back of that.
'But that feels like it was, in football terms, quite a while ago and now we have to still use and take that confidence, but now we have to focus on these last three games knowing, for me, just how good the team can be. We have to set our expectations very high of ourselves.'
Howe, who spent Thursday evening watching Bryan Adams at the city's Utilita Arena, is the first Magpies boss to bring silverware to St James' Park since Joe Harvey's team won the Inter Cities Fairs Cup during the Summer of '69.
On March 16 at Wembley, the current crop produced arguably their best performance of the season to beat Premier League champions Liverpool 2-1, and the former Bournemouth boss knows they may have to replicate the quality of that display if they are to get the better of Enzo Maresca's Conference League finalists.
The 47-year-old, who has doubts over two unnamed players, said: 'Yes, I think we'll have to go close to that kind of performance in order to win.
'Chelsea gave us one of our toughest games of the season at Stamford Bridge earlier this season. I thought they were excellent and I think they've started to re-capture that form in their recent games.
'Enzo is a very, very good manager. He's very clever with what he does with the style of play that they possess, and they've got really good attacking players that can hurt us if we're not right, so we need to get our preparation right, our game-plan needs to be good and our players need to be ready to perform to their best levels.'
Meanwhile, the club has announced it is to launch a fan consultation exercise over a proposal to update the club's crest – which has been used since 1988 – to bring it into line with the digital age.
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