Newcastle back in Champions League as Leicester cling to hope with draw

At kick-off Newcastle fans unfurled an enormous banner emblazoned with the message: “Bad times don’t last but legends do.”

Those words were superimposed on giant images of Eddie Howe and his players as a manager and a team that spent most of last season fighting relegation completed one of football’s more remarkable transformations.

No matter that this was far from a weary looking Newcastle’s most convincing performance; the resultant point sealed a top four place and, with it, the glittering prize of participation in next season’s Champions League.

If many Tynesiders, mentally at least, appear already in the airport departure lounge, passports at the ready as, after a 20-year absence, they prepare for a series of European adventures, Leicester are contemplating countless impending trips to rather less glamorous second tier destinations.

The 2016 Premier League Champions may not quite be relegated, not yet anyway, but their slender survival hopes are dependent on Everton failing to beat Bournemouth at Goodison Park on Sunday, while they also win at home to West Ham.

At kick-off Leicester became the first Premier League team to play on four consecutive Monday nights. After their collection of a solitary point from the first three of those fixtures it is easy to understand why Dean Smith insists he does not much like Mondays.

By way of enlivening this one Leicester’s manager started with his two brightest creative talents on the substitutes’ bench. It meant James Maddison – a midfielder right at the top of Howe’s summer shopping list – and Harvey Barnes sat back and watched as Smith attempted to stave off relegation courtesy of a new look back five featuring Jonny Evans at its heart.

At least Leicester’s midfield did not