'Some weeks' - Aston Villa fear season-ending injury in boost to Newcastle United, Chelsea & Nottingham Forest

Newcastle United took full advantage at the weekend with three of their four Champions League qualification rivals not in Premier League action.

The Magpies avoided a slip-up by beating 18th-place Ipswich Town 3-0 at St James’ Park, as goals from Alexander Isak, Dan Burn and Will Osula saw them climb to third in the Premier League table.

Prior to kick-off, Eddie Howe’s side had dropped to sixth after Chelsea edged past Everton in Saturday’s early game, however their victory put them above the Blues, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest ahead of the final four matches.

It also saw Newcastle open up a five-point lead on seventh-place Aston Villa, not the news Unai Emery’s men would have wanted less than half an hour before taking to the Wembley pitch for their FA Cup semi-final meeting against Crystal Palace.

As it happened, Villa were battered in the capital, with an Ismaila Sarr brace and a stunning opener from Eberechi Eze setting up a cup final with Man City, who beat Nottingham Forest 24 hours later, on Saturday, May 17.

With Villa’s bid to end their 29-year wait for a trophy, it’s now Champions League or bust this season.

Aston Villa handed Marcus Rashford injury blow

And their chances of finishing inside the top five might have taken a serious blow with Marcus Rashford an injury concern.

"He's injured," Emery said after the England international was missing from the squad versus Palace. “"He got injured this week and [Friday] we did a test. It's his hamstring. We are going to try to test him each match but he's injured and probably some weeks he won't be available."

According to ESPN, the problem could rule Rashford out for the rest of the season and in turn signal his last appearance for Villa.

The 27-year-old has made 17 appearances for Villa since joining on loan from Manchester United in January, scoring four times and registering six assists. The West Midlands club have a £40million option to make the move permanent but Rashford would still need to agree personal terms.

And as per the same publication, Rashford is targeting a move to a Champions League club for his next move, so Villa missing out could hurt in more ways than one.

Champions League qualification set to go down to the wire

Newcastle boss Howe expects the race for Champions League qualification to go down to the wire.

Speaking after the Ipswich game, Howe said: “When you’re running out of games as we are, you want to get back into the positions that you want to be in. We know how tight it is, we know the quality of clubs we’re competing against, but all we can do is try to win our games and it was a big step forward today.

“It will go down to the wire. The important thing today was that we bounced back from last week. We have been very consistent and now we have four huge games.”

Remaining fixtures

Newcastle United: Brighton & Hove Albion (A), Chelsea (H), Arsenal (A), Everton (H).

Manchester City: Wolverhampton Wanderers (H), Southampton (A), AFC Bournemouth (H), Fulham (A).

Chelsea: Liverpool (H), Newcastle United (A), Manchester United (H), Nottingham Forest (A).

Nottingham Forest: Brentford (H), Crystal Palace (A), Leicester City (H), West Ham United (A), Chelsea (H).

Aston Villa: Fulham (H), AFC Bournemouth (A), Tottenham Hotspur (H), Manchester United (A).

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