Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and Brighton's Champions League chances assessed by stats experts Opta

Newcastle United will hope to round off a memorable season in some style by landing a place in next season’s Champions League.

The Magpies have already landed major domestic silverware for the first time since 1955 following their 2-1 Carabao Cup Final win against Liverpool and have now firmly set their sights on claiming a top four place and returning to the top tier of European football. For United supporters, memories of visits to Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan will remain fresh in the memory after Eddie Howe’s men faced all three clubs in last season’s Champions League group stage - and there is now a strong desire to face Europe’s elite once again.

Of course, the Carabao Cup final win means United will compete in European football next season no matter what happens between now and the end of the season as their Wembley win landed a place in the Europa Conference League. But without looking to dismiss UEFA’s tertiary club cup competition, Newcastle will hope to land a place in the Champions League to continue their rapid growth and enjoy a major financial boost with the riches that are on offer with a spot amongst the elite. Their hopes could be further boosted with the Premier League set to land an extra spot in next season’s Champions League as a number of English clubs have impressed in European competitions during the current campaign.

Speaking last month following a dramatic 4-3 home win against fellow top four contenders Nottingham Forest, Magpies boss Howe assessed the race for the Champions League with as many as ten Premier League clubs in contention.

He said: “I think there's a host of teams that will have that feeling. We're in there fighting, and I back us if we're fighting and showing our best qualities, as we did in the first half (against Forest). We’ll hopefully be there towards the end fighting and competing for that place, but nothing is guaranteed. It's such a competitive league this year and you can see that from our recent home games,” he added.

But what are Newcastle’s chances of landing one of the Champions League spots? We take a look with the help of the stats experts at Opta.

Stats experts predict final Premier League table and Newcastle United’s Champions League chances

1st. Liverpool - 100.00% 2nd: Arsenal - 99.76% 3rd: Nottingham Forest - 70.59% 4th: Manchester City - 57.20% 5th: Newcastle United - 32.96% 6th: Chelsea - 25.78% 7th: Brighton and Hove Albion - 8.35% 8th: Aston Villa - 2.90% 9th: Bournemouth - 1.74% 10th: Fulham - 0.58% 11th: Crystal Palace - 0.10% 12th: Brentford - 0.04% 13th: Manchester United - 0.00% 14th: Tottenham Hotspur - 0.00% 15th: West Ham United - 0.00% 16th: Everton - 0.00% 17th: Wolverhampton Wanderers - 0.00% 18th: Ipswich Town - 0.00% 19th: Leicester City - 0.00% 20th: Southampton - 0.00%

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