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Everton 1 Newcastle 4: pitiful Blues battered at home

By Matt Townsend

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - APRIL 27: Ben Godfrey of Everton looks on during the Premier League match between Everton FC and Newcastle United at Goodison Park on April 27, 2023 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - APRIL 27: Ben Godfrey of Everton looks on during the Premier League match between Everton FC and Newcastle United at Goodison Park on April 27, 2023 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /
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After another ultimately gutless and pathetic collapse last night at Goodison Park, that is it, I am calling it now: Everton will be relegated at the end of this campaign.

Yesterday’s match against Newcastle United was once again another ‘must-win’ game for the Toffees’ as they face a season run-in that is arguably the most important in the club’s history.

Everton had only six fixtures with three home matches left, to save their top flight status, starting with the Magpies’ last night.

Once again Sean Dyche made decisions that didn’t work, particularly picking Ben Godfrey instead of Nathan Patterson at right-back. Godfrey was terrible and was directly responsible for at least one of the goals, if not more.

I just don’t understand why the manager didn’t go with his natural option at right-back when it was obvious that Godfrey doesn’t suit playing that position. It is maddening to see.

In addition, Dyche again stuck with James Tarkowski and Michael Keane at centre-back. Tarkowski was solid enough but how does Yerry Mina not play instead of Keane?!

Other than that the side he selected was pretty much the one most would have expected with both Abdoulaye Doucoure and Amadou Onana coming back into the side in midfield, although both were way off it last night.

For about 20 minutes though the Blues’ were edging it and playing with some energy and purpose as the visitors sat back.

It didn’t last of course, but there was a little bit of hope there with the fans providing tremendous backing for the players.

However, as soon as Newcastle broke and scored their opening goal, with virtually their first chance of the game, that always seemed to be enough to decide the match.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin did have the ball in the net and it looked a perfectly good goal too but VAR ruled it out for a hairline offside decision that looked very dubious.

After the break the Everton players threw the towel in as we’ve seen so many times before and collapsed totally, conceding another three goals and it could have been more.

It would have been more too if Jordan Pickford hadn’t yet again made several world class saves. That was all that kept the score reasonable.

Dyche again didn’t make changes early enough and when he did it was too late to make any real difference while bringing Neal Maupay on showed just how dreadful things are.

There’s really nothing else left to say and I think that after these last two home results and the lack of commitment from these footballers, I think it is all over for this club in the Premier League.