#3 Newcastle lose ground in their fight for the title
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Ask any Newcastle fan back on the 20th November where they would finish in the league and even the most pessimistic Geordie would have said they would be champions.
With 8 consecutive League wins and being 5 points clear, it would have been difficult to disagree with them.
However, the current league and form tables paint a not-so-happy picture. The Magpies now lie in 2nd place, after losing 4 of their last 8 matches, 2 points off the pace having played a game more than current leaders Brighton.
So what’s happened to them?
Their last 2 losses have come against playoff hopefuls Sheffield Wednesday and perhaps more shockingly, against relegation-threatened Blackburn Rovers.
It may be coincidence, but both those losses have come as Jonjo Shelvey started serving his 5 match ban for racial abuse.
His ban relates to an incident that occurred during September’s match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, in which an independent review panel suggested there was ‘clear and compelling’ evidence that Shelvey had used racially abusive language toward Moroccan midfielder Romain Saiss.
Shelvey has been at the heart of Benitez’s midfield since the start of the campaign and is surely a big loss for the Magpies.
So what can they do to turn this form around?
Rafa Benitez believes that he doesn’t need to change anything and now is not the time to panic:
"I don't think we need to rectify anything, we need to try and do the same things.
"We will encourage the players to play with the same confidence, intensity, ability and same spirit."
Will they pick up their form and challenge for the top once again?
