Newcastle's push for Europe just got a bit harder after what happened last night

Newcastle United are back in the hunt for a European place after hitting a purple patch of form, but thanks to Arsenal and Manchester City, their task just got a bit harder.

Next season the UEFA Champions League is switching to a new format, and with that more places are up for grabs. English clubs were expected to gain an extra place in the competition but because of a poor showing in European competition this season, that extra spot will now to to a German side.

Newcastle's failure to qualify from the group stage of the Champions League has contributed to this, and last night, seeing Arsenal and Manchester City both dumped out of the Champions League handed the extra spot to Germany.

Now that means we're back to needing to finish sixth or higher to nab a European spot.

There are still a few moving parts involved

Should Manchester City win the FA Cup, then seventh would bag the Europa Conference League spot and sixth would gain entry to the Europa League.

It's all a bit wishy-washy and hard to track with things depending on ifs and maybes still.

Basically - Newcastle need to keep going as they are, winning games and then we will end up where we end up. Given the inconsistency of the teams around us, as long as we keep winning, we should comfortably gain a European place.

Newcastle are in a good place heading into the final games

With no disrespect to our upcoming opponents, with the exception of Manchester United, who we've proven we can beat on our day, our run-in is the easiest of any team around us by far. On paper at least.

With 18 points left to play for, if we can pick up 15 points, which should be doable, then we should end up pushing for a Champions League place. We'll likely not get it, but it would be a superb way to end our season which has been anything but fun.

To be honest though, with everything we've gone through in this campaign, just the fact that we're even in that European conversation is close to miraculous and a testament to how good of a manager we have in Eddie Howe.