This just in from Newcastle:

In the wake of Rafa Benitez’s night out at an Italian restaurant in Ponteland with Mike Ashley and the Newcastle squad - (Rafa had seafood risotto and Mike spaghetti bolognese washed down by a, for him, modest two pints of lager) - Benitez says he “is 100% confident” Newcastle will now stay up. That’s significant as, all season, he’s been reiterating they are in relegation trouble. There have been far too many false dawns on Tyneside to be overly optimistic but maybe, just maybe, Ashley has realised he’s got it wrong and might be set to make an 11th-and-a-half hour intervention to put things right. January will be a very big month.