Rafael Benitez admitted he could not have dreamt Newcastle would smash through the Premier League’s 40-point barrier with five games to spare.
The Magpies cemented their unlikely place in the top 10 with a 2-1 comeback victory over Arsenal at St James’ Park on Sunday to ease themselves to 41 points and 13 clear of the drop zone.
That seemed a highly unlikely prospect back in December when a 1-0 away defeat by the Gunners saw the team complete a run of nine games which yielded just a single point.
Manager Benitez, who celebrates his 58th birthday on Monday, said: “We were not expecting to be in the top 10, but at the same time I said we were dreaming, but we were awake and thinking that we could do it.
“If you see the way that the players were working for every single ball – and the fans and all the staff – everybody was pushing in the same direction and that is the key when you want to succeed in something.”
A first victory in 12 against Arsenal, who had won the last 10 meetings, and a first home success over the Gunners since December 2005, was secured by Matt Ritchie’s 68th-minute strike, although it came courtesy of a concerted fightback.
Alexandre Lacazette had fired the visitors, who have not collected a single point on the road since the turn of the year, into a richly deserved 14th-minute lead, only for Ayoze Perez to restore parity with his third goal in as many games 15 minutes later, if distinctly against the run of play.
