Newcastle United's players looked fatigued during a recent loss to Aston Villa.
The Magpies saw their Champions League dream derailed by Unai Emery's team on Saturday.
With the Midlands club winning 3-0 at home to continue their own push for a European finish, ex-Magpie Shay Given commented on his old club's situation.
He stated, per Chronicle Live: "They've had a poor day at the office, you can put it down to that. But, you look at the table and it's a little bit refreshing to see that Tottenham are still three points behind them and Newcastle have got a better goal difference.
"When it comes to today's performance they were just off, they actually looked a bit tired. You try and look for reasons and excuses after the game for why they've played so poorly and they looked a bit off it.
"Tactically the team selection at the start of the game - Gordon coming in, they changed up the midfield with Joelinton coming in as well with Longstaff on the bench for the first time in a while.
"There's little things like that but you can't take it away from Aston Villa, they were absolutely brilliant and Ollie Watkins, what a performance he put in."