Yesterday’s game with Manchester City was Newcastle’s first league outing since they booked their place at Wembley with a second-leg semi-final win over Arsenal, and Howe’s side produced arguably their worst performance of the campaign as they crashed to a 4-0 defeat.
Two seasons ago, the Magpies head coach admitted the Carabao Cup final became a distraction as focus was trained on the game at Wembley, which Newcastle eventually lost 2-0 to Manchester United.
Howe is determined to ensure that the same thing does not happen again, although yesterday’s evidence suggests his efforts are not yet proving successful.
“If that (his players focusing on the final) is the case, then we’re in trouble because our Premier League season will be over by the time that final comes around,” said the Magpies boss. “It can’t be the focus.
“It’s on the horizon, but it should be a positive, it shouldn’t be a negative distraction for us. I’d encourage the players to look at it that way, it’s an excitement. But we have to go back to work, and work is the Premier League, the day in, day out.
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“We have to perform – that’s three of our last performances in the Premier League that haven’t been good enough, and they’ve all had similar traits in them. It’s back to basics for us next week.”
Externally, talk of Wembley has dominated the narrative around Newcastle ever since they saw off Arsenal to book their place in the League Cup final.
The last week has seen a stampede for tickets for next month’s Wembley showpiece, with various fallouts dominating the news agenda on Tyneside, while nationally, the focus remains on the Magpies’ quest to end 70 years without a domestic trophy.
Howe needs to somehow shut all of that out for the next four weeks, with his side still involved in the battle for Champions League qualification as well as preparing for a home game against Brighton in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
“I can’t stop other people talking about it (the final),” said Howe. “We’ve tried to address it internally and then put it away. I don’t know. People will naturally assume that the cup final might be a negative distraction, and it certainly wasn’t a good performance from us today. But I’d need a bit of time before sticking my colours to the past to see what went wrong.”
