Paul Merson has warned Newcastle United that ‘they will get relegated’ if they don’t pick up seven points from their next three home matches, as he told Sportskeeda.
The Sky pundit stated that Eddie Howe, who will take charge of his first Newcastle game at St James’ Park on Saturday, has ‘three winnable games’ coming up.
The first stop for the Magpies is a showdown against Brentford, who after a strong start, are now starting to hit their slippery slope.
Then it’s a trip to London to face-off against in-form Arsenal, before two huge home games against Norwich City and Burnley.
Merson is perhaps referencing Newcastle’s next three home matches as the ones they have to target maximum points from.
Despite the warning from the outspoken pundit, he is actually backing Howe to start off his reign with all three points.
“This is a massive game of football in the Premier League,” said Merson. “Newcastle United finally have a new manager in Eddie Howe and they have three winnable games at home coming up.
“If they don’t get at least seven points in this period, they’ll get relegated. They have a terrible run of games after that, so they’ll have to make the most of this one.
“I fancy them to get a narrow victory at home against Brentford.”
This is more of a psychological battle for the Magpies more than anything else because they are the only team without a win this season.
It just proves the mess Howe has walked into and how it can go from one end of the extreme to the other.
On one hand, Newcastle, with their new Saudi-led ownership, have this big pot of gold to spend and climb up the table.
But, at this moment in time, that’s not going to help them because, by the time the January window comes along, they may well be cut adrift and that’s when the panic will really start to set it.
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