Newcastle boss Eddie Howe's vision should worry Everton and it might be about to come true

Eddie Howe has vowed the 'only thing' he is visualising is Newcastle United putting in a performance at Everton - not the Magpies playing in the Champions League next season.

With just seven games to go, Newcastle are edging ever closer to returning to Europe's top table for the first time since 2003. Newcastle are currently six points clear of Spurs in third place after hammering their supposed rivals 6-1 at St James' Park at the weekend.

It was a result that cost interim boss Cristian Stellini his job and it will fall to another caretaker, Ryan Mason, to somehow try and pick these Spurs players up at a time when Newcastle also have a game in hand and a superior goal difference. Whatever about the table, there is also a palpable determination within the group to finish the job and Kieran Trippier has spoken of how 'we shouldn't be scared to say we want to play Champions League football'.

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Howe has not quite gone that far just yet. Although Howe has previously imagined what it would be like to end the club's trophy drought, to believe it is really possible, the Newcastle head coach has not thought about what it would be like to have European nights back at St James' Park.

Instead, Howe is just taking one game at a time, starting with the trip to Goodison Park on Thursday night, as Newcastle look to make amends for the 1-0 defeat in the corresponding fixture last season.

"That's for another day," he told reporters. "For me, now, the only thing I'm visualising is Everton and making sure we improve on last year's performance there."

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