Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United view on recent wins for Leeds United, Burnley & Brentford

Eddie Howe has told his Newcastle United players to focus on themselves as the Premier League relegation battle reaches a critical stage.

A run of nine games unbeaten - including six wins out of seven - between December and March lifted the Magpies out of the drop zone.

But following a run of three straight defeats at Chelsea, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur, Howe knows safety is far from guaranteed.

That was further reiterated on Wednesday night when Burnley beat Everton 3-2 at Turf Moor to cut United’s advantage over the bottom three to seven points.

Survival remains firmly in Newcastle’s hands ahead of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ visit to St James’ Park on Friday.

“We’re aware of the results (around us) but we can’t control them,” Howe admitted. “What affects me is my players, the training we produce, the preparation for the game and making sure we’re at our best level.

“For me, we’ve never been in anything other than a relegation battle. Until we get the points we need, that is always going to be the case.

“We know how difficult the Premier League is and how important momentum is.

“We’ve gone three games without winning and we need to feel that we can wrestle the momentum back, and that’s going to be down to our attitude and approach to the game and emphasising the importance to the players but also everyone connected with the club.

“We need to get as many as we can and hope it’s enough.”

A points total of 35 has been enough to keep a team in the top-flight in all but one of the last 10 seasons.

On that basis, United require just four points from their remaining eight games. But what does Howe think?

He said: “I think you have to take it game-by-game. Of course, you’ll have an idea of the points that you need, but it can change and it’s something that’s very difficult to predict.

“The minute you start trying to predict results is the minute you waste your time and your energy, so let’s just focus on us.

“We have to bring a better version of ourselves than we did against Tottenham, especially in that second half, so we’re fully prepared to try to do that."