We have to approach Aston Villa like another final.
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Under-pressure Everton manager Roberto Martinez enjoyed some respite as his struggling side won for the first time in eight league matches.
Jermain Defoe’s injury-time penalty to earn Sunderland a potentially priceless point at Stoke was not enough to prevent them from dropping into the relegation zone. They end their season with a home game against Spurs.
‘Momentum is really important for us.
Waking up to extreme weather of the nice variety for a change was a plus with so much at stake, I noticed more fans were up with the lark such is the tension and fear factor among us all. “That’s the only way”.
Could the appointment of Benitez prove to be owner Mike Ashley’s greatest signing since he took control of Newcastle in 2007?
The Magpies extended their unbeaten run to four matches with a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace at St James’ Park courtesy of a thunderbolt of a free-kick from Andros Townsend just before the hour.
Benitez said: “You can say always when a keeper saves a penalty that he is a hero, but then we can say the same with Andros”.
Thereafter the game entered a lull, and there wasn’t another clear-cut chance Karl Darlow made a good one-handed save after Cabaye’s shot from a narrow-angle.
Palace boss Alan Pardew, whose return to St James’ was greeted with relative indifference, chose not to speak to the written press after conducting his postmatch broadcast interviews, sending in assistant Keith Millen instead.
“Relegated probably”, said Allardyce after Defoe scored his 17th goal of the season to cancel out Marko Arnautovic’s 50th-minute opener.
“I remember we lost against Birmingham and I was pushing the players and every time we were losing, I said to them, “We have an opportunity” and they were reacting”. Between now and then it will simply be a case of playing for places, but on the other hand they will be keen to end their Premier League campaign on a high note after going through such hefty struggles since the turn of the year. Perhaps he meant Coca-Cola.
There was one last chance for the home side before the interval, and it was their best one of the entire half as Jack Colback found space inside the area but proceeded to curl his effort wide of the target when he should have done better. We know what we have to do. “We don’t want to rely on anybody else”.
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“When it does come and it does drop you have to make sure you are ready to go”.
