Premier League | Rampant Newcastle crush Everton; Man United held by Tottenham

In third place on the Premier League table and with an eight-point cushion to Manchester United and Tottenham, Newcastle looks set to play in the Champions League next season

After scoring 10 goals in four days, Newcastle is closing in on Champions League qualification in some style — and quicker than the club's Saudi ownership might have expected.

A finish in the Premier League's top four looks increasingly likely for Newcastle following a 4-1 win at Everton on Thursday. It wasn't quite as emphatic as the 6-1 rout of Tottenham on Sunday, but it wasn't far off.

In third place and with an eight-point cushion to the teams battling to keep in touch with the top four, surely Newcastle will be joining Manchester City and Arsenal in Europe's top competition next season — less than two years since the game-changing takeover by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.

Manchester United is the favorite to be the fourth English team to reach the Champions League but a second-half collapse at Tottenham on Thursday gave the chasing teams — including Spurs — some hope.

Jeered by their fans at 2-0 down at halftime, Tottenham's players recovered to draw 2-2 and regain some pride from that dismal performance at Newcastle that marked one of the darkest days in the London club's recent history.

It was so bad — Newcastle scored five times in the first 21 minutes — that the team offered refunds to fans who traveled to the game, and interim manager Cristian Stellini was fired.

Tottenham, now under another caretaker manager in Ryan Mason, is up to fifth place on goal difference and leads the chasers behind fourth-place United, which is six points clear with seven games to play.