Howe has £356m Newcastle bench call justified as ‘transfer fees’ claim proved – 3pm Blackout | OneFootball

Eddie Howe had some huge Newcastle calls justified, while West Ham were all out of luck and Tolo Arokodare has long hair.

Newcastle might finally have extricated themselves from a relegation battle they accidentally slipped into.

Sunderland are also safe after a forgettable draw at Molineux; West Ham are not.

Brentford 3 West Ham 0 – Nuno luck for struggling Hammers

It is difficult to recall such a thoroughly Just Not Our Day game than that suffered by West Ham against Brentford.

They hit the woodwork four times, had two strong penalty shouts overlooked, had one goal marginally ruled out for offside and were outshot 14 to 13 in an eventual 3-0 defeat.

With Arsenal next and a potentially reinvigorated Newcastle at St James’ Park after that, it does feel as though everything might hinge on that final weekend showdown with Leeds.

Spurs face Daniel Farke’s home-and-dry side, as well as a distracted Aston Villa and Liam McFarlane’s Chelsea, before their season-closer at home to Everton.

The gap between the relegation battlers remains two points; it will be no consolation to West Ham that a greater rub of the green against Brentford would have increased it to five.

Wolves 1 Sunderland 1 – two sides split by a hair’s breadth

Three goals in 30 appearances does not ordinarily lend itself to much of a Premier League legacy, but Tolu Arokodare is indelibly linked to one of the more laborious trends in the modern history of the English top flight.

The FA’s directive that “in the wider interests of football ‘hair pulling’ ought not to be tolerated and should be discouraged through consistent punishment” has centred largely around the follicle-based challenges of and on the Wolves striker, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Marc Cucurella.

Sunderland defender Dan Ballard joined Everton centre-half Michael Keane in receiving his marching orders for an alleged tug at Arokodare’s dreadlocks this season, with David Moyes handily summing the situation up a few months ago.

“It is not violent, it is not forceful and it is not deliberate so all of those things I have said mean it shouldn’t have been a red card,” he said after a repeat of this game: a 1-1 draw in which Wolves failed to take advantage of their opponent having a man sent off for an aerial duel with Arokodare.

“I have been a centre-half and there is no way I am jumping to out-jump a big centre-forward and think: ‘By the way I am going to out-jump him and at the same time I am going to pull his hair’,” Moyes added.

With that red card and two goals scored by defenders from corners, it was a painfully 2025/26 Premier League experience.

Newcastle 3 Brighton 1 – Controversial Howe calls justified

Eddie Howe was eager to stress that his meeting with the Newcastle owners this week was an annual tradition, rather than any panicked reaction to an ongoing crisis.

That the Magpies were able to schedule a season review in April was perhaps the most damning assessment possible. Howe said he would be “challenged and probed on certain decisions” he’s made and “how we’ve ended up in certain scenarios,” but might have struggled to justify his team selection against Brighton.

The result and aspects of the performance offered the strongest possible defence. “I don’t pick the team based on transfer fees,” Howe said recently, as a £356m bench watching a £279.6m starting line-up attested.

But the calls were validated, first by Will Osula heading into an empty net after exceptional work from Jacob Murphy, then by Dan Burn granting the hosts a two-goal lead from a corner.

Even those expensive substitutes came into play when Yoane Wissa rode a Paul van Hecke challenge to play Harvey Barnes in to round off an absurd topsy-turvy end to a game Newcastle had to win.

After Jack Hinshelwood’s wonderful goal on the hour, Brighton pushed for an equaliser and came agonisingly close. It was summed up by a final ten minutes in which there were seven shots – all from different players – including a daft Charalampos Kostoulas overhead kick.

The last, with Barnes firing into a net vacated by Bart Verbruggen once again, finally sealed a win Newcastle and Howe in particular desperately needed.