'I'm number one accountable' - Howe

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It does not look like it is about to get any easier for Newcastle.

Eddie Howe has fond memories from his time at Bournemouth, but his former club will sense a huge opportunity to extend their unbeaten run when they visit St James' Park next week.

Then Newcastle go to league leaders Arsenal before potentially sticky games against Brighton, Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Fulham.

It feels like the club are rapidly approaching a crossroads and Howe recognised, himself, this week that it was "very difficult" to look beyond the run-in.

It sounds like he is about to double down.

"A couple of games ago we beat Chelsea away and beat Manchester United and you sit here off the back of a disappointing run and the outside noise is to change everything," he added.

"Sometimes you have got to believe in what you do but, of course, we have to execute it better."

Although a number of Howe's players were away on international duty for most of the gap between games, these past few days still felt like the ideal period for the squad to regroup.

Not least when they were facing a Crystal Palace side who had only played in Europe on Thursday and benched key players such as Adam Wharton, Ismaila Sarr and Jean-Philippe Mateta, who ended up turning the game on its head during a match-winning cameo.

However, on this evidence, there is little to suggest Newcastle are about to finally go on a run and qualify for Europe.

"I always have to look at myself first," Howe said. "I always say that. I'm number one accountable."

• Read Ciaran's full piece