Newcastle boss Eddie Howe says winning the Carabao Cup might be even more special than finishing second in the Premier League.
The Magpies, who beat Liverpool at Wembley in March to claim their first piece of domestic silverware since 1955, head into Sunday’s penultimate fixture of the league campaign at Arsenal knowing victory at the Emirates Stadium would leave them in with a chance of clinching the runners-up spot.
That is something they have not managed since 1997, when Kenny Dalglish repeated Kevin Keegan’s feat of 12 months earlier.
However, asked if that would represent a bigger achievement than winning a cup, head coach Howe said: “It’s a difficult one to answer and it’s difficult to compare as well.
“Winning silverware, when I first arrived at the football club, was a dream and an ambition at that stage.
“It felt like a long way away, so to actually win silverware and the reaction that generated will never, never leave me. I don’t think you can compare the two things.”
That day at Wembley represented a glorious culmination of the work Howe, his staff and their players had done since arriving on Tyneside in November 2021, when they inherited a team battling relegation.
Three-and-a-half years on, they will run out at the Emirates with a first trophy banked and three wins over the Gunners already this season, an illustration of the progress they have made, in particular when they have come up against the traditional big six.
Howe said: “I don’t think we would have won the Carabao Cup if we hadn’t have had those wins beforehand. The fact we’d beaten other clubs, not in a one-off situation, but a regular fashion in the last couple of years, helps you go into those games with a belief that you can win it again.
“We would like to continue to build that, but those games are very difficult, home or away. But we have full internationals and players who have done it at various other levels and competitions. We have the inner belief that we can win anywhere now.
“We know we have to be at our best to do that. If you go back to Manchester City away, we weren’t at our best and were really disappointed with ourselves.
“The players understand that now – if we drop, we’ll get beaten; if we play to our maximum, we can win.”
