As far as I understand about Newcastle United, they did not take advantage of the transfer market last season by buying players. Just look at the results now when the injury storm comes, it is difficult to anticipate because of the lack of replacement options. With the finances they have, it is not difficult to buy 2 to 3 players. Meanwhile, other clubs have made slight improvements, for example against Chelsea, it was clear that Newcastle's performance was not as we know it, last season it was able to put pressure on the top teams. Now they are only in the top 10 of the standings and will be overtaken by Chelsea because they still have 1 more match left that can be put to good use. Last season, Newcastle only lost 5 times out of 38 matches, but now in 28 matches Newcastle has lost twice as many times and this figure will still increase if there is no improvement.
Newcastle have been very active in the transfer market before this, and it is too much to buy new players every off-season. The reason for the decline is that they had too many injuries to key players, there were too many injuries, and they happened at about the same time, so the team felt it strongly.
I watched several Newcastle games and noted for myself how actively the Newcastle players play in a pressing manner, such a game always seemed very traumatic to me, perhaps Howe is able to draw conclusions about this, otherwise he will never be able to achieve stable results with such a strategy.