How are you feeling, Newcastle fans?

Anguish ... Newcastle United's Alan Pardew during West Ham clash. Source: Olly Greenwood / AFP

A make-or-break batch of live mid-week football on Fox Sports kicks off with Sunderland's crunch clash with Stoke City on Tuesday morning.

Newcastle fans, will you be able to watch?

Tuesday

Sunderland v Stoke

4.53am (EST) Fox Sports 1 HD

Wednesday

Manchester City v West Bromwich Albion

4.53am (EST) Fox Sports 2 HD

Wigan v Swansea

4.38am (EST) Fox Sports 3 HD

Thursday

Chelsea v Tottenham

4.38 (EST) Fox Sports 3 HD

Not only have Alan Pardew's side - a success story last season - slumped right into the relegation race, they'll be sweating on a result involving Sunderland, a despised rival, to avoid dropping deeper down the table. Should Paolo Di Canio's side defeat Stoke City, at the Stadium of Light, Newcastle will slump to 17th. If Wigan prevail on Wednesday (EST), Newcastle could find themselves in the dreaded bottom three. 

It's a whirlwind ride at the foot of the table. Sunderland themselves will be looking to bounce back from a miserable 6-1 outing against Aston Villa. 

Di Canio will hoping his flamboyant touch worked as they recover from the Christian Benteke show last week. 

"Is it the first time they have seen me angry? Probably, yes," Di Canio said.

"But I saw straight away that, when you have a group of intelligent people, they blame themselves even more than anything I can tell them.

"It’s difficult to be even more tough on them, not because you don’t want to be tough, but because you can see they really feel hurt and they really understood why it happened.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	36	27	4	5	42	85
2	Man City	35	21	9	5	30	72
3	Chelsea	35	20	8	7	34	68
4	Arsenal	36	19	10	7	31	67
5	Tottenham	35	19	8	8	18	65
6	Everton	36	15	15	6	14	60
7	Liverpool	36	14	13	9	25	55
8	West Brom	35	14	6	15	1	48
9	Swansea	35	10	13	12	-1	43
10	West Ham	36	11	10	15	-8	43
11	Stoke	35	9	13	13	-10	40
12	Fulham	36	10	10	16	-11	40
13	Aston Villa	36	10	10	16	-21	40
14	Southampton	36	9	12	15	-11	39
15	Norwich	36	8	14	14	-22	38
16	Newcastle	36	10	8	18	-23	38
17	Sunderland	35	9	10	16	-12	37
18	Wigan	35	9	8	18	-22	35
19	Reading	36	6	10	20	-26	28
20	QPR	36	4	13	19	-28	25

"Obviously, I was angry and I wanted to make sure they received some stick in some way – not because I want to be tough, but because it’s normal." 

Di Canio maintains "we have our destiny in our hands, and if we get a result, nobody can catch us" and they have lost just one of their past six fixtures against Stoke City. 

With Stephane Sessegnon and Steven Fletcher out, the onus returns to Danny Graham - a striker who hasn't scored in 14 EPL games for both Swansea and Sunderland.

"When I arrived he wasn’t really fit in terms of playing in the Premier League," Di Canio admitted. 

"He had a long face, and was walking around the training field like this in the first two or three sessions. I thought, "Can he play football?” That was not because of his past, as his past is fantastic, but I wondered what was going on.

"I spoke to him and in the last three weeks he knows he is playing and so he is confident but he also feels part of the cause as he is involved and is participating.

"He is intelligent, he is ready and that is why I feel confident that he can score." 

So while Di Canio talks up his side, Alan Pardew is scrambling to salvage positives after a point at West Ham United. Toon fans will be watching Sunderland and Wigan's mid-week catch-ups anxiously. 

"It's a great win for Wigan and it's put extra pressure on us but you can only do what you can and I thought we were terrific in the first half," Pardew said. 

This weekend's clash with Queens Park Rangers will be anything but enjoyable to watch for anxious Geordies. 

"We’ve got to make that point crucial now. We’ve got to get three at QPR, that will probably be the key," Pardew added. 

"Now the performance really is going out of the window. We need a win at QPR however it comes. We’ve got to improve that area for next week."

After a £31 million splurge in January, it is unfathomable for Newcastle to be in this situation. But they are, and it's desperate times. Pardew certainly hopes he'll get the chance to learn from his mistakes. 

"I think one of the problems I faced in this group, if I am honest, is not a language problem, not a cultural problem, it’s been inexperience," he said. "We still have a lot of inexperience on the pitch.

"Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa is playing his eighth or ninth Premier League game on the trot, which is hard, as Colo [Fabricio Coloccini] found when he arrived, and he has been a great player for us. He gives us a seven, eight, nine every week when he’s playing, but when he first came he wasn’t like that. Hopefully in the next three we can get performances that are more eight and nine, than six.

"The biggest problem is that, between us, we lack experience. Heavy defeats break your spirit and that’s happened to a few of my players. It has been an experience problem. We’ve got a lot of Premier League  inexperience on the pitch.

"We will certainly, at the end of the year, have a discussion about where we are going to trade and where is best for the group."

Compare that tension to Roberto Martinez at Wigan, plotting his third straight great escape.

While Pardew fends off claims of dressing room discontent and a malfunctioning squad amidst one win in eight, the omens are there again for Wigan. 

Twice they came from behind at West Brom, sticking true to themselves to prevail.   

"It was a performance full of character," Martínez added. "I couldn't be prouder of the players. I don't think many teams score three goals from open play against West Brom. Every other club fear to lose something. We don't. We don't fight to avoid relegation. It is not a negative, it is a positive. As a football club, we win the title every time we stay in the league. We have got a big-club mentality in those players. We are ready to win both trophies, the league and the FA Cup."

The mid-week football fix ends with a veritable grand final as Chelsea face a Tottenham side hanging on in the race for a UEFA Champions League spot.

The morning's win over Manchester United cannot be underestimated for Chelsea's hopes. 

"It was a massive moment," goalkeeper Petr Cech told Sky Sports.

"After the results yesterday (both Arsenal and Tottenham won), we knew we had to win.

"We have a massive game and we go into the game three ahead - if we win we leave them behind, it changed the preparation for Wednesday." 

Arsenal and Chelsea's recent form means Spurs might have to take maximum points from Chelsea, Stoke, and Sunderland to have any hope of remaining in the race. 

"It will be extremely difficult, but if we achieve these nine points we will be enjoying Champions League football next season," Andre Villas-Boas said on the weekend. 

"That is our aim, but we understand that other teams are improving and it will probably go down to the wire.

"The three points gives us a wonderful opportunity against a team that is fighting for the same objectives as us."

It's a fascinating week - even more enjoyable if you're neutral. 

What's it like for those involved? 

"Look how many grey hairs I’ve got," Wigan defender Paul Scharner quipped after the weekend's escape. 

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