How will Newcastle cope with brutal February fixtures?

Newcastle faces a challenging schedule in February, starting with the Carabao Cup second leg against Manchester City. After a tough first leg defeat, Coach Eddie Howe emphasises the team’s belief in their abilities despite injuries affecting key players. The team must navigate a demanding month while aiming for consistency.

INMR

February 4, 2026

3–4 minutes

Carabao Cup, Champions League, Eddie Howe, FEATURES, fixture congestion, football, Man City vs Newcastle, Newcastle, Premier League, Sandro Tonali

Newcastle take on Manchester City this evening in the second leg of the Carabao Cup, just four days after they visited Anfield. The fixtures are coming thick and fast for the Magpies, with eight fixtures scheduled in February.

Eddie Howe’s side are poised for a tough few weeks as they take on the likes of Aston Villa and Man City again in the Premier League. Plus, Newcastle face a 5000-mile round trip on the 18^th for their Champions League knockout play-off match against Qarabag. Let’s have a look at how Newcastle are going to deal with their hectic month ahead.

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After suffering a 2-0 home defeat in the first leg, Newcastle’s Carabao Cup prospects already hang in the balance before a ball is kicked. However, Howe told the media: “We very much have to have that belief… we still believe and we have to believe we’ve got the players that can go to any stadium in the world and perform and score goals.”

It was confirmed that Sven Botman was fit to play at the Etihad, but both Lewis Miley and Bruno Guimaraes will miss out due to injury. Newcastle’s injury list is pretty lengthy at the moment, with Joelinton, Tino Livramento, Fabian Schar and Emil Krafth all out of action.

In order to battle the growing number of players in the medical room, a number of youngsters have been called up to train with the first team.

Leo Shahar, Aidan Harris, Miodrag Pivas, Scott Bailey, Mason Miley, Baran Yildiz, Park Seung-Soo and Dylan Charlton were all involved from the under-21s, earning the chance to impress in front of Howe and his staff.

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Ahead of tonight’s match, Howe said: “There’s a lot of thought that’s going into our team selections at the moment… we’ve tried to pick and choose the moments when we rotate. We don’t want to rotate too many at one time… try to keep it to sort of two to three, maybe four, on a game-by-game basis.”

Newcastle had the opportunity to add to the squad during the January transfer window but opted not to make any appointments. Howe admitted it was a risk not bringing in any new defenders, but that “financially it wasn’t possible.”

The Magpies boss said: “The squad is okay… “We need to get our injured players back fit and until we do that there will be an imbalance. We are certainly stretched defensively.”

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After tonight’s match, Newcastle will have x days to recover before they face Brentford at home, who they lost 3-1 to in the reverse fixture. Four consecutive away trips against Spurs, Villa, Qarabag and City follow, before Newcastle close out the month with the second leg of the Champions League play-off and a home clash against Everton in the Premier League.

Newcastle’s trip to Azerbaijan will be the longest away day any English side has ever had in the Champions League. That fixture resulted in the Magpies’ league game against City being moved from 12:30 pm on Saturday 21^st February to 8pm that same day.

The unforgiving schedule could prove pivotal in Newcastle’s season. They currently sit 11th on 33 points in the Premier League and have just one win in seven games across all competitions. Despite his side’s unfortunate circumstances, Howe insisted that Newcastle “have to work under the conditions that they’re in.” He added: “Collectively there’s that spirit within the group… we believe in ourselves.”