Everton steamroll relegation fears as Kieran Trippier has terrible night

Everton have needed remarkable results in the final few weeks of the season the last two seasons to avoid relegation. They may now look at the standings in December and feel really satisfied. Despite being deducted 10 points, they are already out of the bottom three. Another way to look at it is that if it weren’t for their controversial punishment for violating Financial Fair Play standards, they’d be in the top half.

But they’ve had a fantastic week, with Dwight McNeil scoring against both Nottingham Forest and Newcastle, canceling out the majority of the Premier League’s heaviest points deduction in history and demonstrating Sean Dyche’s team’s passion. Everton moved up to 17th place when McNeil, Abdoulaye Doucoure, and Beto handed Newcastle their biggest defeat of the season.

It was certainly a good time to face Newcastle, who showed indications of tiredness following superhuman efforts against Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester United, but the game still needed to be won. While Everton displayed their now-characteristic profligacy at Goodison Park, they hammered away until McNeil made the difference for the second time in five days.

If Dyche’s Burnley has seen many Everton goals, there was a twist to their opening two. Kieran Trippier, the architect of Newcastle’s victory over Manchester United and a player who has made significant progress at Turf Moor, dropped the ball twice. McNeil robbed him first, then drove forward and rifled a shot past Martin Dubravka. Then Jack Harrison took advantage, and while McNeil failed to convert the winger’s low cutback, the onrushing Doucoure displayed a far more certain touch.

It was Everton’s ninth victory in 12 games in all competitions, a run made all the more remarkable by their struggles in the previous two seasons. While they started the season as the Premier League’s lowest scorers at home, and Dyche may never be known as one of the game’s great adventurers, his hardworking squad has demonstrated a consistent ability to create a slew of chances. They finished up with 21 shots, their perseverance saving them from a tedious stalemate.

Six of those chances fell to Calvert-Lewin, whose inability to convert any reflected in part on the one guy added into an otherwise unchanged Newcastle lineup. Even that change was forced upon Eddie Howe as he began life without Nick Pope, the beginning of a phase that will last several months. For the time being, speculation of David de Gea or Aaron Ramsdale is limited to Pope’s understudy getting an audition for a bigger role in Newcastle’s season.

Dubravka, tasked with replacing probably the best goalkeeper in the Champions League this season, saved Calvert-Lewin twice in quick succession, saving a header and diving to his right to deflect a shot. Calvert-Lewin volleyed over from six yards then headed over from even closer range for further reprieves. But Dubravka’s night was cut short when Beto scored his first Premier League goal.

Newcastle had begun to wither by that point. Following their ferocious onslaught on Manchester United, they were more muted than normal from the outset; perhaps a gameplan was a result of exhaustion. Perhaps even this gang can only go to the well so many times. Howe made two 90-minute substitutions, but the same 10 outfielders played at least 80 minutes in all four games in 12 days.

However, in the process of clinging to parity and pinching a goal, Newcastle lost the spark, the vitality that had driven them. They had a few missed opportunities. Miguel Almiron, who was selected by Joelinton, only managed a feeble effort against Jordan Pickford. Trippier almost got the correct kind of assist as Alexander Isak headed wide from six yards. Almiron scored on the roof of the net to make it 1-0.

Before that, there was a moment that threatened to be very brutal to Everton. Anthony Gordon took advantage of a mistake by James Tarkowski but blasted straight at Pickford. The boyhood Evertonian was back, and he was booed, starting at Goodison Park for the first time since refusing to train in order to force a trade to Newcastle.

Dyche used two right-backs with a combined age of 73 against him, with Ashley Young slotting in ahead of Seamus Coleman as part of a reshuffle because both James Garner and Amadou Onana were out. Harrison moved to play as a No 10, setting up two chances for Calvert-Lewin and one for McNeil, who shot just wide. Coleman came off before any of the goals were scored but ended his evening beating his chest in front of the Gwladys Street.