Next games ‘massive,’ claims Rafa

RAFA Benitez has underlined the importance of Newcastle United’s pre-Christmas fixture list.

Two daunting games at Liverpool and Watford over the festive period have made for a far from ideal scenario for the Magpies, with travel issues and tough tests on the field lying in wait.

The new year will then see a dangerous Manchester United side travel to the North East.

Benitez believes that has increased the importance of the next two games, against Huddersfield Town today and Fulham next weekend.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference yesterday, Benitez said: “The next two games will be massive because we will play against teams who are very close to us.

“You can see you can beat them if you play well and against the top sides sometimes you can play well and still you can lose.

“It is an opportunity for us to get three points, to go a little bit higher in the table and then we have to really, really concentrate on that.”

Benitez insisted he had been right about his complaints over DeAndre Yedlin’s red card and Willy Boly’s elbow incident on Ayoze Perez last weekend, simply because nobody from the FA had stepped in to tackle him over his post-game comments.

Looking back he said: “That is the reason why I was upset the other day.

“When you are in control of a game which you can win, everything which happened the other day means for us it is more difficult.

“When you play against teams who are close to you more or less and you are in control, these decisions change everything.

“Now we have to explain to our fans maybe we are missing three points which could be crucial at the end of the season.”