Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United verdict after ‘massive’ week

Howe’s side beat Southampton 3-1 at St James’s Park this afternoon to stay third in the Premier League with five games left to play.

The win followed successes over Everton and Tottenham Hotspur over the past seven days.

“It’s been a good week,” said United’s head coach. “It’s been three massive games for us, and three tough games.

“Today was a tough game in a different way to the others, because we knew the expectation externally was probably that we were going to win. It can be very difficult sometimes to manage that, and we knew that Southampton would be difficult opponents.

“Their need is great, as well, and they have quality players, so to find ourselves 1-0 down at half-time was a difficult thing, but I thought we handled ourselves brilliantly in the second half.”

Newcastle return to action next Sunday with a home game against second-placed Arsenal.