Newcastle v Brighton: Battle of the Big Six gatecrashers

The 2022-23 Premier League season has seen the monopoly that the self-appointed European Super League Elite clubs hold over the top six positions broken by Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion.

That makes for an intriguing evening as the sides meet at St James’ Park with three games of the campaign left to play. Victory for the Toon will take them a step closer to Champions League football.

Three points for Brighton would leave the Albion needing one win from their final two games to guarantee a Europa League spot, whilst also keeping the mathematical prospect of the top four open.

It would take an unlikely turn of events for Brighton to make the jump into the Champions League over the final 10 days of the season.

They would, however, be right in the mix were it not for two refereeing and VAR performances so bad that PGMOL chief Howard Webb had to personally apologise to Roberto De Zerbi.

At Crystal Palace, what should have been a 2-1 Albion victory became a 1-1 draw because Stockley Park drew their offside lines from the wrong Eagles defender, ruling that Pervis Estupinan was in an illegal position when he was actually very onside.

Worse was to come at Tottenham Hotspur. Two Brighton goals incorrectly disallowed. Two clear penalties not awarded. Spurs won 2-1 in a match you could easily argue would have finished 5-2 to the Seagulls with competent and fair refereeing.

Add the five points Brighton were denied to their current total and they would be on 63, three behind third placed Newcastle and fourth place Manchester United on 66 and with a game in hand. Ouch.

Such inexplicable, obvious and costly errors have led a lot of Albion supporters (and fans of other clubs for that matter) to conclude that there is some kind of conspiracy going on.

That the Premier League are doing all they can to stop Brighton qualifying for Europe at the expense of Spurs and Chelsea, whose failure to make the Champions League will only strengthen their resolve to join a breakaway closed-shop Super League where qualification is not required.

Newcastle fans are very much onboard with such conspiracies, having seen their side also impacted by some horrendous decisions this season they claim are designed to prevent their participation in the Champions League.

The Toon even went so far as to file an official complaint when they were denied victory at Palace through a goal disallowed after VAR ruled Eagles goalkeeper Vicente Guaita had been fouled by Joe Willock.

Quite how Stockley Park drew that conclusion remains a mystery as replays clearly showed Willock was pushed into Guaita by a Palace player. Newcastle probably had stronger claims for a penalty than Guaita did of being impeded.

It seems odd that the two sides from outside the Big Six who have gatecrashed the European places are also the biggest victims of VAR and refereeing mistakes this season. Makes you think, as Matt Le Tissier is so fond of saying these days.

But there is a big difference in what the treatment Brighton and Newcastle have received this season means for their clubs going forward.

The Albion may never have a better shot at reaching Europe than this 2022-23 season. Chelsea and Spurs cannot surely be such a shambles again and as well run as Brighton are under Tony Bloom, they cannot compete financially.

At the end of the day, money trumps all in the Premier League. That will eventually lead to Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo leaving, possibly both in the same summer transfer window.

The likes of Kaoru Mitoma, Julio Enciso, Pervis Estupinan and Evan Ferguson will all follow suit over the coming years.

Roberto De Zerbi will not be here forever either; he is an elite manager destined for one of the biggest jobs in the world.

There is little point in worrying about what the future holds. Of whether Brighton can continue to punch above their weight when this current squad is cherry picked and De Zerbi heads off to win league titles and Champions Leagues.

Albion fans simply have to enjoy what are the greatest days in the clubs 122 year history. Savouring every moment of routinely embarrassing the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea is important because it will not last forever.

And that is where the Toon are fine. They can bemoan refereeing decisions all they like, but with the limitless backing of the oil rich Saudi state using Newcastle United as a sportswashing project, they seem certain to turn the big six into the big seven.

If the Toon do not finish in the big four in 2022-23, they can simply chuck money at it and have another go next season. They have more cash than any other football club on the planet after all and Saudi Arabia wants to use those petrodollars to buy trophies and glory.

Their hope is that the rest of the world then links the Saudi name with the transformation of Newcastle United, rather than carrying out the mass executions of 81 men in a single day.

Or luring a dissident journalist to an embassy before torturing, murdering and then dismembering his body. Or any of the other horrific examples of human rights abuses carried out by one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, whom Newcastle fans now dress up as, wave flags around to celebrate and praise openly.

That shows how football is great for sportswashing. It has worked at Manchester City, where Abu Dhabi is now associated with one of the greatest club sides in English football history rather than modern day slavery, lack of basic rights, homosexuality being punishable by death and attempts to silence anyone critical.

Having highlighted Newcastle’s wealth, it must be said that they have not gone on the sort of spending splurge most clubs with rich new owners embark on.

The £250 million lavished over three transfer windows of Saudi ownership so far is the only the seventh most in the Premier League.

Eddie Howe relies largely upon the same core of players he inherited when taking the Toon job in November 2021, when Newcastle were bottom of the Premier League. Smug Eddie has done a fine job in transforming the Toon from relegation candidates into top four contenders.

Whether that sensible approach to signings continues if Newcastle do qualify for the Champions League remains to be seen. Already, they have been linked with Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain.

Bet Dan Burn never thought he would potentially be playing in the same team as the most expensive footballer of all time when he was training alongside Aaron Connolly two years ago.

So yes, when Newcastle and Brighton meet on Saudi-on-Tyne, it will be a clash between two clubs who have upset the applecart this season more than any others.

And whilst they face off with remarkably similar stories for 2022-23 of overachievement, they are heading on different paths. All the while Newcastle remain a sportswashing project for Saudi Arabia, they will be competing at the top.

Brighton in contrast will continue to try and show there is a way other than money and selling out to oppressive regimes, through clever recruitment using statistics no other club thinks to look at and meticulous future planning.

It will be much more difficult for the Albion and it could mean falling back into mid table as soon as next season. But give me Tony Bloom over owners who assassinate people they do not like any day of the week.