If the geordies can steal just a couple of draws from the games against the big three, they might actually be in for a shout of a top 6 finish.
What a surprise package this year.
They finished 12 points off 5th last year, without a striker for the majority of the year. They had a MUCH better goal difference than the 3 teams who finished above them. Another year, more consistency from a more established team gelling together better and they replaced the trouble makers with better players + added a genuinely quality striker to the team.
Not sure why its such a surprised, also the next 4 games don't mean much of anything, I'd put them as favourites to beat Everton, and most teams lose to the top 4 teams. Losing points, dropping down several places then winning a few more games and moving back up. The biggest thing isn't actually losing to top 4 teams, but how quickly they can pick up form afterwards, assuming they lose most of those games.
At the moment, the only two games I expect them to lose are City and Utd, Chelsea at home, totally unknown, one game to the next Chelsea are crap then brilliant.
It's irrelevant, you can lose all 8 games to the top 4, and come 1st, or 5th, or 20th. There are only two games against each team, you can "only" drop 24 points against the top 4.
It would be entirely different if this were 4 games from the end of the season, it was 3 top teams and to hang on to a top 6 spot they'd really need results out of those teams. But, they are doing very well, they've got more points than most while not playing the best teams, they lose a few points against the best teams, then they get more against other teams, that's how it goes.
Not saying they will hang on to 3rd, I can see a team like Newcastle tiring this year as they are generally playing the same squad every single game, and that's not been bad so far, infact helped them, but come freezing February's, after a long time playing almost every game, they'll be more tired and likely less able to give quite as much effort as they put in last night. Top 6 from the way they've played so far is very realistic, they've got a balanced team unlike a LOT of other teams in the league, a fairly potent offence AND a solid defence. A lot of other teams, take Arsenal, if we aren't awesome upfront, we lose because our defence is so poor, other teams offence's are pretty awful and they rely on low scoring games and a great defence. Newcastle so far aren't nearly as reliant on one part of their team.