Everton cruise past troubled Newcastle
Newcastle spent more than any other team in England last month in an attempt to avoid their current crisis becoming worse, but still find themselves two points from safety despite breaking the bank.
A first-half strike from Aaron Lennon and two late Ross Barkley penalties calmed the troubled waters that had been lapping around Roberto Martinez after a run of five previous home games without a victory, and after hitting the woodwork on three separate occasions in the second half, the hosts more than deserved their three points.
“We’ve been learning some really painful lessons but this was a mature performance,” said Roberto Martinez.
Newcastle, whose only chance of note came to nothing when Aleksandar Mitrovic fired wide, were second best throughout, and remain in dire trouble despite their recent investment. For all that they have thrown money at attacking midfielders recently, they have now scored just one goal in their last five away matches in all competitions.
Everton were no more than average for the majority of a desperately poor game, but that was still more than good enough to make them a cut above Newcastle.
The hosts would have gone ahead as early as the fifth minute had Rob Elliot not clawed away a low strike from Tom Cleverley, who had claimed a stoppage-time winner when the two sides met on Tyneside in December.
But they had to wait only until midway through the first half to break the deadlock, with Lennon benefiting from some desultory Newcastle defending as he fired past Elliot from the edge of the area. Cleverley rolled the ball into Lennon’s path, and with Georginio Wijnaldum standing off him, the winger had as much time as he wanted in order to pick his spot.
The hosts should have doubled their lead before the break, but Barkley lofted over an open goal after Elliot headed a routine long ball into his path and Lennon saw a shot blocked by Chancel Mbemba after Seamus Coleman’s pull back teed him up.
For all that Newcastle have spent more than £80m since the end of last season, Mbemba is the only defender to have arrived on Tyneside and the balance of Steve McClaren’s side continues to look skewed. That said, they were poor in attack too. Ayoze Perez was preferred to Mitrovic in the lone-striker role but was easily outmuscled by Phil Jagielka and Ramiro Funes Mori, and while Andros Townsend marked his debut with a handful of charges down the left-hand side, the majority led him up the blindest of blind alleys.
Everton remained the dominant force throughout the second half, but were unable to add to their lead despite hitting the woodwork on three separate occasions during a remarkable six-minute spell.
All three incidents involved saves from Elliot, with the first proving the pick of the bunch. Barkley’s long-range effort was arcing towards the top corner before Elliot acrobatically tipped it onto the crossbar.
Three minutes later he was saving from his own man as Jonjo Shelvey’s glanced header from a free-kick forced Elliot to claw the ball against the bar, and another three minutes after that, the Newcastle goalkeeper was getting down to his left to palm Cleverley’s free-kick against the base of post.
The visitors had thrown on Mitrovic by that stage, and while it would be stretching it to suggest the Serbian striker altered the course of the game, he at least provided a focal point to his side’s attack.
His lack of composure has been apparent all season though, and it proved Newcastle’s undoing when they carved out their best chance of the game midway through the second half.
Mitrovic’s movement enabled him to beat the offside trap as he met Moussa Sissoko’s cross, but he stabbed the ball wide from eight yards out with the goal seemingly at his mercy.
Perez finally forced Joel Robles into his first save of the game with a bouncing strike that the goalkeeper clawed away, but as the action became stretched, so Newcastle’s defence became increasingly threadbare.
The decision to field Rolando Aarons, more usually a winger, as a second-half left-back looked doomed to failure from an early stage, and so it proved with three minutes left as the academy graduate clattered into Lennon to concede a wholly unnecessary penalty.
Barkley converted from the spot, and earned a second spot-kick in stoppage time when Jamaal Lascelles was dismissed for bundling over the midfielder. Displaying the kind of nerve that could make him a key part of Roy Hodgson’s England squad in the summer, Barkley cheekily dinked the ball straight down the middle.
Robles 6; Coleman 7, Funes Mori 8, Jagielka 7, Oviedo 6; McCarthy 6, Barry 7; Lennon 8, Barkley 7, Cleverley 6; Lukaku 6 (Kone 46).
Stanek, Baines, Gibson, Osman, Pienaar, Deulofeu, Kone.
Elliot 9; Janmaat 6, Mbemba 5 (Lascelles 45), Coloccini 5, Dummett 4 (Aarons 46); Saivet 5 (Mitrovic 55), Shelvey 4; Sissoko 4, Wijnaldum 5, Townsend 4; Perez 5.
Darlow, Taylor, Gouffran, Doumbia.
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