Everton Vs Newcastle United, All Smiles in Goodison, Frowns For The Geordies
Everton hosted Newcastle United this week at Goodison Park. Newcastle was without their top striker Alexander Isak and a homecoming for Anthony Gordon who came through from the Everton academy. Everton were looking for points as they fight to survive in the Premier League.
The ball went into the back of the net early in this game. In the 19th minute Everton midfielder Adboulaye Doucoure found himself in the box to finish a header. Unfortunately for Everton the goal was ruled offside by a margin, no goal.
10 minutes later Everton found themselves in another VAR moment as defender James Tarkowski yanked Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali in the box. VAR concluded that the yank was indeed a foul so it was in-fact a penalty for Newcastle United.
Up steps Anthony Gordon to take the penalty.
What a moment this could be for him, Everton boy at heart, who was born and raised a Toffie, now a Newcastle man, it was his time to give Newcastle the lead over his boyhood club.
This however wasn’t a storybook ending as Gordon misfired the penalty straight to the right side of Jordan Pickford, the home crowd erupted in joy. Somehow the score stayed level.
The first half ended with not much to note.
The Second half came about with no team making changes.
An uneventful half to say the least, one of the only notable moments came in the 66th minute.
Everton midfielder Dwight McNeil played Dominic Calvert-Lewin through on goal which ended up being missed, but got his rebound. On the rebound Calvert-Lewin got clipped by defender Dan Burn. Just like the first half there was another VAR check, and just like the first half the decision went against Everton.
Everton Manager Sean Dyche’s perspective on the non penalty call on Calvert-Lewin
“If that happens in the middle of the pitch everyone would think it’s a foul,” Dyche said. “I see so many weak penalties and you see that and they don’t even look at it”.
After this moment not much happened during the game. The final whistle blew with no teams scoring.
An overall tough watch for the neutral fan, this game only saw 5 shots on target combined from both teams.
For Everton, even though some laws of the game went against them, keeping a clean sheet and avoiding a loss at home can be seen as a positive. This makes it 3 weeks in a row that Everton have avoided a loss in the league. Compared to how they started the season, it seems the tides have slowly started to shift for the better.
Coming into the game week most Newcastle fans expected 3 points from this fixture, rightfully so. Newcastle haven’t been bad this season, but they also haven’t been good. Many thought that this season for Newcastle would be a much more positive season than last year because they don’t have to play any European football and because their squad became deeper. But, it just doesn’t seem that things are clicking and why? Now it’s not time to hit the panic button and change coaches and sell half the team, but I do think it’s time to start having some conversations about the future if things don’t start to get better. Remember this board heavily invested into Newcastle with hopes of being a top 4 team maybe even a title contender. However, results will tell the story of Newcastle’s season and if things don’t start trending in an upward direction, there is a possibility for someone to replace head coach Eddie Howe.
