Match Preview: Newcastle United v Everton can the Blues bounce back

After defeat at Southampton ended their unbeaten start to the season, can Everton get back to winning ways against Newcastle United?

This is another tricky away game for Everton. The Toffees were already missing two key players in right-back Seamus Coleman and forward Richarlison and now for this match also Coleman’s fellow full-back Lucas Digne is out, serving his one-match suspension for last weekend’s red card.

And today in a further blow, manager Carlo Ancelotti also revealed that star forward James Rodriguez will also be unavailable for the clash with the Magpies due to injury.

The Colombian was hurt in the derby and only passed a very late fitness test to play in the game at Southampton, where he wasn’t as influential as he has been.

Rodriguez absence is something I feared might happen and will severely curtail the effectiveness of the Toffees attack. The Blues boss calls it a ‘small problem’ – I hope he’s right.

With all those players out I think it will be difficult for Everton to win this game. Even with a full strength team, this fixture wouldn’t be a gimme as Newcastle under Steve Bruce are generally proving to be a pretty tough nut to crack.

While for Everton, last weekend’s loss at St Mary’s was a sobering one and the manner of the defeat reminded everyone of the kinds of results that we saw all too often last season.

Those squad players who came in against the Saints, particularly Gylfi Sigurdsson and Alex Iwobi didn’t do enough to convince that they can adequately step up and fill in for their absent first-team colleagues.

Too many of the side just didn’t turn up last weekend and it was the kind of performance that we had hoped to have seen the last of.

More from Prince Rupert's Tower

So Carlo Ancelotti has some difficult decisions to make when he is deciding who is to fill in for those injured and suspended players. We’ve discussed all the possible options at length and so we can only wait and see what the manager will do on Sunday.

As for the Blues’ opponents, Newcastle have had a solid start to the season although they got thumped 4-1 by Manchester United in their last game.

The Magpies aren’t scoring many goals but, apart from that defeat by Man United, they haven’t conceded many either.

Bruce usually takes a safety-first approach and that caution, while giving them a good shape, means the Magpies don’t create much.

So with all of Everton’s injuries and suspensions and Newcastle’s cautious mindset, I can’t see many goals on Sunday and a low-scoring draw seems the most likely outcome.

Everton don’t have a great record in the north east in recent years but the Toffees did win last season in Ancelotti’s second match in charge. While three points would be great, most of all though, let’s just hope that we don’t see yet another red card for a Toffees player.