Sunday 24 September 2017 09:20, UK
Rafa Benitez says his Newcastle side must "keep their feet on the floor" and believes the fans know the players care for the club.
Having lost their opening two Premier League matches, the Magpies have now won their past three and have amassed nine points - more than Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal.
But Benitez has urged his side to stay grounded as they navigate a tough league and look to avoid a return to the Sky Bet Championship.
"We have won three games but at the same time, I know that it is quite difficult and we have to keep feet on the floor because it will be a long race," he told Soccer Saturday.
"When I came at the end of the 2015/16 season, we had around 33 players and now we have 26. Of that 33, a lot of them knew they would not be here in the future so the atmosphere was different. This 26 know that they are here and they will stay for some time.
"The fans, when they talk about this club, they say the players care about the black and white shirt. I think that is the main thing. The other group were professional but some of them were finishing their contracts and there were too many.
"With any club, if you have the team doing well, the fans talk about football. I would like to have the same situation until the end of the season because that means it will be positive.
"I'm really pleased with that because to see a city and the fans dreaming, of course we sometimes have to keep our feet on the floor, especially at the start, but I'm not worried about the fans dreaming."
While a manager's future is never assured, Benitez adds that he is only focused on the next game and making sure Newcastle can only get better.
"At the moment, I am just focused on games and improving the team that we have. My background is as a coach, not a manager and to improve players is something I like to do," the Spaniard said.
"I think you have to have a plan and then try to implement your ideas. We will have conversations in the future about what we want to do but at the moment, we have some time until January where we can be sure what we want to do in terms of football.
"It is up to us to try and achieve what we want to with every training session and every game. The idea is now for three points against Brighton and then we will soon be thinking about Liverpool and Crystal Palace and so on.
"Our way is to prepare every day in every training session and do it as well as we can."
See if Newcastle can make it four league wins in a row as they travel to Brighton live on Sky Sports Premier League from 3.30pm on Sunday.
