Newcastle United's quest for Champions League football could conclude emphatically tonight, with the Tyneside club requiring just one point against Leicester City in the Premier League to secure top four.

With 69 points and two games to play, the third-placed Magpies have waltzed into prominence this term after a seasonal resurgence last year to follow the buoying news of the affluent Saudi-led takeover after years of instability and strife.

Manager Eddie Howe will be delighted with the progress made, but against the imperilled Foxes, who would be all-but-relegated with defeat at St. James' Park, focus must be fine-tuned and intensity must be at full throttle.

For all of Leicester's issues, they are at the last chance saloon and will attempt desperately to cause a major upset and rewrite more than one narrative as the top-flight campaign enters its culminating week.

To ensure this doesn't happen, starring right-back Kieran Trippier must look to harness his success on previous occasions against City this season and once again provide dynamic brilliance to cement a place in Europe's premium continental competition.

How could Kieran Trippier perform against Leicester?

Having signed for Newcastle for £12m from Atletico Madrid in January 2022, the hope was that Trippier would provide composure and dynamism from the right-back position to aid the fight against relegation.

He has achieved this emphatically, having now forged 51 appearances for the Toon, scoring three goals and providing ten assists, hailed as a "revelation" by talkSPORT's Simon Jordan.

As per Sofascore, the 32-year-old has recorded an incredible average Premier League rating of 7.62 this term and has been instrumental to the meteoric rise to the forefront of the league pack, averaging three key passes per match, making 23 big chances, and forging 1.9 tackles and two interceptions per outing.

He will be especially important in ensuring Leicester don't get a foothold in the game by inhibiting Harvey Barnes on the offensive left flank - the wily winger is one of his side's only admirable performers this season and boasts 12 goals from 32 matches, though suffered one of his meekest showings to date in a deflating effort against Trippier in the reverse fixture.

Losing 3-0, the 25-year-old flanker mustered a match rating of only 6.0, winning just two of his eight duels and unable to make the slightest dent in Newcastle's armour, with Trippier pitted against him securing a match-best Sofascore rating of 8.3, picking up an assist, making four key passes, winning nine of his 13 duels, making four interceptions and three tackles; stifled would be an understatement.

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Leicester's misery against Howe's team does not abate there. In the Carabao Cup, the sides waged battle once again and Newcastle confidently secured a 2-0 victory, with the "defensive animal" Trippier - as lauded by England manager Gareth Southgate - once again excelling and leaving with an 8.0 Sofascore match rating after creating five key passes, making three tackles and four clearances, an inexorable force which City had not the answer for across both matches.

Dean Smith will hope that he can stem the tide tonight, but the evidence is damning; Leicester have crumbled and Newcastle are boundless.

Only last week, the King Power Stadium was subjected to a 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool, with resurgent right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold scoring a goal and illuminating the defensive frailties down the left flank, with Luke Thomas now suffering a woeful run of form - his outfit's second-lowest performer in the entire squad, according to Sofascore - to coincide with Leicester's spluttering seasonal fortunes.

Howe, Newcastle and Trippier will exploit this, merciless and ravenous for success, securing a result that will send St. James' Park into cacophonous cheer to open up a new illustrious chapter on Tyneside.