Everton v Newcastle: Blues have to settle for a point

On the back of that derby defeat Everton had to settle for a point tonight against Newcastle United at Goodison Park.

This is an irritating result for Everton and will add to the sense of frustration and lost opportunity that followed the result at Anfield on Sunday.

Instead of a possible four or even six points from these fixtures, Everton have only got one from the two games this past four days.

And after producing one of the their best performances of the campaign in that derby match at the weekend, in this game Everton were a bit flat and off colour and had to come from behind to get a point against the Magpies.

Everton started the game slowly and despite dominating possession and being very much on the front foot they were unable to find an early way through a determined and well-organised Newcastle side set up to defend.

The Northeast club were however a threat whenever they got a chance to counter-attack and in almost text-book style that’s what happened as they broke and opened the scoring through Soloman Rondon in the 19th minute.

The Toffees continued to make most of the running in the game but were being frustrated by their opponents.

However just before halftime Everton managed to get an equaliser as Richarlison notched his seventh goal of the season following a near miss moments earlier from Gylfi Sigurdsson.

But that was all that the Toffees could muster and despite plenty of possession and pressure in the second half were unable to add to the Brazilian’s strike.

There were several other frustrating aspects of this draw as well. Ademola Lookman got a rare start as Marco Silva made several changes in attack.

But Lookman didn’t have a particularly impressive game and failed to take his chance to put the other forwards under any pressure.

I think it is worth persevering with him and giving him more opportunities from the beginning of matches. But it does look as though he might end up becoming something of a super-sub at Everton, coming on to change a match with half an hour to go.

Another player who got a chance again was Cenk Tosun. The Turkish striker has not featured for a while with Richarlison playing as the central forward.

Tonight he played from the start of the game too. But again he couldn’t grasp the opportunity either and failed to find the back of the net.

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This will be a worry for Silva. He knows that the Blues are too reliant for goals on Richarlison and Sigurdsson. They’ve scored fourteen of Everton’s 21 Premier League goals so far.

It seems then increasingly likely that unless one of the other forwards can grasp the chance, the Toffees may well be going back into the transfer market for another striker, either in January or the summer.

The Blues have another chance to return to winning ways at home with a game against Watford next Monday night before the small matter of a trip to the Etihad Stadium to play Manchester City.