Source: SKY_Sports
Nine lives for Toon
Former Newcastle midfielder Rob Lee has identified three games that will make or break the club's Premier League future.
The Magpies slipped into the relegation zone on Saturday following their 3-1 defeat to Arsenal and are now among the bookmakers' favourites to be relegated to the second tier of English football for the first time since 1992-93.
Newcastle have just won one of their last 12 games in the Premier League and with Chelsea up next at St James' Park, they are in desperate need of points with just eight games to go.
But former midfielder Lee believes they require just three more wins to ensure their survival - and he has identified the forthcoming home matches against Portsmouth, Fulham and Middlesbrough as their must-win matches.
He told Sky Sports News: "I think 38 points, nine more points or three wins will save you this year. It's saved clubs before.
"Our homes games are important. The next one against Chelsea I would probably expect very little from but Portsmouth, Fulham and also Middlesbrough are games we should win with our crowd behind us.
"If we win those games then I think it will be enough to keep us up."
But although Lee remains optimistic that the club can survive in the top flight, he admits falling into the drop zone will have a damaging impact on the morale of the players.
And he warned the club's expensively-assembled squad that they are in a real fight to survive.
"Nobody is too good to go down," he said.
"I'm worried about us going into the bottom three. I saw the game against Arsenal on Saturday and for 60 minutes I thought we played very well and matched them.
"In the last 30 minutes or so they showed great quality and obviously it's not a good time to fall into the bottom three with just eight games to go."
