Newcastle United's new predicted Premier League finish ahead of Leicester City clash

Newcastle United have played a watching brief as their rivals for a place in next season’s Champions League have been in action over the weekend.

The Magpies will bring down the curtain on an eventful Premier League weekend when they visit relegation threatened Leicester City on Monday night and Eddie Howe’s men will hope to boost their hopes of claiming a return to European football’s top table by completing a league double over the Foxes.

Of course, Newcastle will compete in European football once again next season after last month’s historic Carabao Cup final win against Liverpool secured a place in the Europa Conference League - but United have their eyes on a more lucrative and prestigious competition as they aim to land a top four place and a spot in the Champions League for the second time in Howe’s managerial reign.

Although it has not yet been officially confirmed, the performances of the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea in European competition this season has boosted England’s UEFA co-efficient and that should mean fifth place in the Premier League will be enough to earn a shot at European football’s elite.

Speaking ahead of the midweek win against Brentford, Howe spoke of why his side would benefit from Champions League football and explained the impact that could make on the Magpies long-term ambitions.

He said: “There’s no doubting the power of Champions League football. It could be game-changing in terms of revenue and also in terms of what it means and the competition, and then of course the changes that you have to make to be ready for Champions League football. That changes everything – as we found last year to our cost to some degree with the extra games – so there’s a lot to think about.

“But for us, qualifying for that is going to be very, very difficult. There are, as we know, 10 games, there are a lot of teams competing for those places. It’s one of the tightest Premier Leagues that we’ve seen in recent times, very little between the teams competing for those places, so it’s going to come down to who is the most consistent. Of course, we want that to be us and in those 10 games, we are going to have to give everything to get there.”

So with nine games now remaining, where are Newcastle predicted to finish in this season’s Premier League and is a Champions League spot on the agenda? We take a look with the help of the stats experts at Opta.

Where are Newcastle United predicted to finish in the Premier League table?

Relegated: Southampton (15 points) Leicester City (23 points) Ipswich Town (26 points) Sticking around for another season: Wolverhampton Wanderers (40 points) West Ham United (44 points) Everton (44 points) Tottenham Hotspur (45 points) Manchester United (47 points) Brentford (51 points) Crystal Palace (52 points) Bournemouth (54 points) Fulham (55 points) Brighton and Hove Albion (57 points) European qualifiers: Aston Villa (62 points) Chelsea (64 points) Champions League qualifiers: Newcastle United (65 points) Manchester City (67 points) Nottingham Forest (69 points) Arsenal (77 points) Champions: Liverpool (90 points:

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