Eddie Howe Prepares for Final Premier League Push with Newcastle

Eddie Howe is braced for one last push. One more Premier League outing, one more chance to lock in the sense of revival that has swept through Newcastle over the past month. And he might just have Sandro Tonali back in the middle of it.

The Italian midfielder limped off with a hamstring problem in the win over West Ham, casting doubt over his involvement in Sunday’s final-day trip to Fulham. Howe, though, sounded cautiously upbeat.

“Sandro, potentially, will be available,” he said. “We will look at him again today. We don’t think it is anything serious.”

Newcastle will take that. Tonali’s influence in possession has grown as the season has worn on, and his presence could be central to Howe’s plan to end the campaign with the authority of recent weeks, rather than the inconsistency that scarred the early months.

If Tonali’s status is a maybe, the rise of Osula is anything but.

The young striker ripped into West Ham, scoring twice in a 3-1 win that not only eased past relegation-threatened opponents but also underlined the raw power now emerging in Howe’s front line. It was the kind of performance that makes a manager lean forward in his chair when he talks.

“He is at a really good age,” Howe said. “Lots of things to continue to work on, there are lots of untapped areas we can develop.

“The ceiling in his development is really high. He has the raw ingredients, the physical profile too.”

Those “raw ingredients” are exactly what Newcastle have ridden in recent weeks: energy, aggression, and a willingness to run through games that once seemed to be drifting away from them. Their win over West Ham, in the final home game of the season, felt like a statement as much as a send-off.

“It was great to win our last home game. That left us all with a great feeling. We want to end the season on a real high,” Howe said.

Not long ago, that kind of talk would have sounded optimistic at best. Newcastle’s form had sagged, their rhythm broken by injuries and inconsistency. Then came April, and with it a reset. Their last defeat in the league came against champions Arsenal, and since then the mood has flipped.

Newcastle now travel to Fulham with momentum behind them and a manager intent on squeezing every last drop from it.

“We hope to continue the upturn in our recent performances, upturn in our in-possession play, we want to end the season high, it is an important match for us,” Howe said.

One game left. A striker on the rise, a midfielder racing the clock, and a team determined to prove this late surge is the start of something, not the end.