Newcastle United deepens Everton relegation woes with 4-1 win

Newcastle United secured a 4-1 victory against Everton, leaving the home team in a difficult situation with regards to escaping relegation.

Callum Wilson scored his seventh and eighth goals in six games against Everton, while Joelinton scored his fourth in five games. These goals helped lift Eddie Howe’s side eight points clear of fifth place. Jacob Murphy also scored for Newcastle, leaving the hosts with just one win in their last ten games and two points from safety.

The loss makes Everton’s Monday game against Leicester a must-win, as the team cannot rely on the power of Goodison to get them over the line to extend a 69-year stay in the top flight.

Newcastle, on the other hand, has experienced their own period in the doldrums of the Championship, but the team has no such worries. An appearance in Europe’s elite competition proper for the first time since 2003 edges ever closer for the team, having scored 10 goals in their last two matches.

The visitors demonstrated they have the mettle for a fight, as they outlasted the intensity and physicality Everton brought.

ALSO READ: Manchester United bidders given final deadline to submit offers

Despite losing the early midfield battle, Newcastle took control once Wilson put them ahead in the 28th minute with his fifth goal in his last six games. Abdoulaye Doucoure’s return from suspension and Amadou Onana’s availability after injury allowed Dyche to select his first-choice midfield for the first time in four matches. However, Everton’s Calvert-Lewin remained isolated up front, and Dyche could be seen waving midfielders forward in support, with the striker himself beckoning players closer.

ALSO READ: Tottenham fight from behind to salvage 2-2 draw against Man United

Newcastle managed to dampen Everton’s fire without managing to create a genuine chance of their own until they took the lead in the 28th minute.

Joelinton broke down the left and cut inside Ben Godfrey, woefully exposed as a stand-in right-back due to the unavailability of Seamus Coleman and Mason Holgate, to shoot at Pickford. The save bounced kindly off James Tarkowski to Wilson.

In the second half, Tarkowski blocked Joe Willock’s goalbound shot seconds after the interval, but the response was for Calvert-Lewin to force a save out of Pope after Iwobi had escaped the clutches of Matt Targett on the counter-attack. Willock’s volley was acrobatically tipped around the post by Pickford.

The unmarked Joelinton’s close-range header and Wilson’s brilliantly curled shot into the top corner delivered the killer blows against the toiling hosts in a four-minute spell.

The trickle of fans heading for the exits missed McNeil’s 80th-minute goal, but Magpies substitute Murphy scored his side’s fourth immediately, and a VAR offside ruling denied Schar Newcastle’s fifth.