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Pressure On Everton, Says Leicester Boss Smith After Draw At Newcastle

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A 0-0 draw at home to Leicester City meant Newcastle will finish in the Premier League’s top four and will be mixing it with the continent’s big guns for the first time in two decades.

Heading into the final Sunday when it hosts West Ham United, Leicester is 18th with 31 points, two less than Everton who is at home to Bournemouth on the final day and above 19th-placed Leeds on goal difference.

Leicester City’s Premier League status is hanging by a thread after a 0- 0 draw at Newcastle United on Monday took the club’s survival out of its own hands, but director Dean Smith says the result heaped the pressure on Everton.

Heading into the final Sunday when it hosts West Ham United, Leicester is 18th with 31 points, two lower than Everton who’s at home to Bournemouth on the final day and above 19th- placed Leeds on thing difference.

Leicester also has a better thing difference than Everton so if it beats West Ham, Everton will also have to beat Bournemouth to save its 69- time term in the top flight.

Smith, whose side defended for the vast maturity of the game at Newcastle and were saved by the woodwork three times, said that at least they still have a chance after numerous had written off the 2016 titleholders.

“I suppose we’ve (put pressure on Everton). If they draw and we win we stay up. I did say it might be down to thing difference, ” Smith, who took over until the end of the season following the sacking of Brendan Rodgers in April, said.

“We’ve got a tough game against West Ham who have just good for a European final. Their director is a good friend of mine, David Moyes, he’s someone I’ve a lot of respect for and he’ll make it a really tough game for us.

“But we ’ve made Everton have to win if we win ourselves. That performance( against Newcastle) was what sympathizers merited with all the travelling they ’ve done this season, and it was a clean distance they merited. ”

It promises to be whim-whams- jingling final day for suckers of Leicester, Everton and Leeds.

“We ’re going to need help. I suppose there’s going to be a lot of anxiety between the three brigades that are in it, ” Smith said.

Still, we obviously will give it our stylish shot and as long as we can say that we’ve fought tooth and nail, all we can do is put pressure on them, “ If Everton win. ”

Qualifying Newcastle United for the titleholders League wasn’t indeed in Eddie Howe’s studies at the launch of the season but on Monday the club’s remarkable metamorphosis saw it secures its place back amongst Europe’s nobility.

A 0- 0 draw at home to Leicester City meant Newcastle will finish in the Premier League’s top four and will be mixing it with the mainland’s big ordnance for the first time in two decades.

After celebrating on the St James ’ Park pitch with his players, Howe was asked what the targets had been back in August.

“After last season’s battle against deportation, it really was whether we could consolidate and come a better platoon and not flirt with deportation like last season.

“I can’t praise( the players) enough for that intelligence, their station what they ’ve given me and the club. ”

When Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought an 80 stake in Newcastle in October 2021, ending Mike Ashley’s barren 14- time power of the North East club, the original task was to keep them in the top flight.

Newcastle was 19th in the table and without a palm and Steve Bruce was shortly sacked and replaced by Howe.

Indeed also it took Newcastle until the 15th game of the season to get a league palm, but after that, with the help of some canny signings similar as England right- back Kieran Trippier, Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes and protector Dan Burn, the fog that had shrouded the Tyneside club eventually began to lift.

Newcastle ultimately finished 11th and the instigation carried into this season with the club splashing some of the Saudi cash on club record purchase Swedish striker Alexander Isak.

While, on paper, Newcastle has riches to compete any club in the world, it has not yet inked the kind of galactico players the suckers might have been featuring about.

But the likes of Isak, former Burnley keeper Nick Pope and protector Sven Botman have enhanced Howe’s team.

They began to turn a race of draws at the launch of the season into triumphs and piecemeal from amid-season dip when the pretensions dried up, Newcastle has been a model of thickness.

The fact they’ve finished above the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, speaks volumes for Howe’s impact and he can now start planning for the coming step.

“We’ve to retain wisely which we’ve done in every window so far, ” Howe said. “ But the coming window will be the hardest. We know coming season the challenge will be bigger. ”

While Newcastle’s first top- four finish in the Premier League since 2003 sparked fests on Monday, Howe said the coming step is to deliver a first major jewel since 1955 after falling in the League Cup final this time.

“I want success largely for this football club, ” Howe said. “ So we ’ll try that. I feel like we ’ve achieved commodity great but there’s no jewel. We ’ll enjoy tonight be we want to bring flatware then in the future. ” Know More Football News…

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