Former Newcastle United midfielder Jermaine Jenas has claimed that Eddie Howe will be hoping for 'little bits of success' from these next three 'tough' fixtures.
The Magpies are currently in action at second-place Liverpool, before they prepare to host Premier League leaders Manchester City and top-four chasing Manchester United before the New Year.
It's a difficult set of matches, but Howe will be keen to get as many points on the board ahead of the January transfer window and crucial games against relegation rivals Southampton, Watford and Leeds United.
Ahead of the trip to Anfield, Newcastle sat 19th, three points off safety and started to build some momentum before the 4-0 defeat at Leicester City on the weekend.
They had previously beaten Burnley 1-0 and picked up draws against Norwich City and Brentford either side of a narrow 1-0 loss at Arsenal during Howe's five matches in charge.
However, Jenas admitted that Howe will be looking for some 'resilience' and 'character' from his side as they face all of last season's top three within three matches.
Speaking on BT Sport, he said: "They (Newcastle) will look at the fixtures coming up for starting tonight as tough as it gets but the reality for Eddie Howe and Newcastle in my opinion is they need to find a way of getting little bits of success especially in these next three games that they’ve got coming up.
"They took a battering off Leicester and that does nothing for morale. You go away as a manager thinking I’ve got to rip that out and start again whatever the plan was for that.
"I would like to see Newcastle, even if they come here and get beat 1-0 here today, if it’s 2-0 you know there might be some stuff there where Eddie goes 'actually, we showed some resilience we showed some character, we actually created a couple of chances we didn’t take' but there’s something positive you can take into January.
"Hopefully there will probably then be some work in the transfer market they’re on the front foot then and things are actually happening."
