EVERTON 0-2 NEWCASTLE UNITED
- Goals: Callum Wilson (£6.6m) x2
- Assists: Jonjo Shelvey (£5.3m), Jamal Lewis (£4.2m)
- Bonus: Wilson x3, Lewis x2, Fabian Schar x1 (£4.9m)
CALLUM UP
Callum Wilson nods a header over Jordan Pickford for Newcastle’s first goal
All Fantasy Premier League eyes were on Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.6m) heading into Gameweek 21 but it was Callum Wilson (£6.6m) who stole the headlines with a two-goal performance.
The Newcastle striker opened the scoring at Goodison Park after 73 minutes, putting a looped near-post header into the far side netting of Jordan Pickford‘s (£4.8m) goal from a Jonjo Shelvey (£5.3m) corner.
Everton had previously been warned about Wilson’s threat from set-pieces. The forward’s header was the best opportunity of a drab opening 30 minutes, forcing Pickford into a fingertip save onto the crossbar following a Ryan Fraser (£5.6m) corner.
Wilson’s brace represented his first goals since Gameweek 14, ending a drought of seven Premier League matches without finding the net – although he did register an assist against Leeds in Gameweek 20.
“I think it’s been a long time coming. We needed to pull our fingers out, to be honest. We’ve showed glimpses, over this run, of playing better but today it all came together with the result. You could see in our play today, we were on the front foot – kind of fearless in our performance.” – Callum Wilson
With Crystal Palace and Southampton up next for Newcastle, it is certainly noteworthy that the former Bournemouth man has 18 points across his last two appearances.
The key to whether or not Wilson can sustain that sort of form comes from assessing what Steve Bruce did differently at Everton.
Asked specifically if Newcastle had been working on pressing higher up the pitch, Wilson responded:
“Yeah, front-foot this week. We have to take the game to teams. We can’t be sitting back all the time, especially with the players we’ve got.” – Callum Wilson
And it was that front-foot attitude that helped Wilson ask Everton plenty of questions in a display that could have featured a whole hatful of goals.
His old Bournemouth connection with Fraser almost came to fruition again after 52 minutes. A Newcastle break, inspired by that high press, found Fraser on the left, who slid a familiar ball through for Wilson.
The striker put the big chance the wrong side of Pickford’s right-hand post, would have been subject to a VAR check for offside if he had scored, but the intent and chances were there for Newcastle.
In the 87th minute, a through-ball from Miguel Almiron (£5.6m) freed Wilson to round Pickford but his effort on goal struck the near post before going wide.
Wilson got his second into injury time as Everton pushed for an equaliser when substitute Allan Saint-Maximin (£5.1m) released Jamal Lewis (£4.2m) down the Newcastle left.
The full-back wasted no time, pinging a first time ball across to the unmarked Wilson. The striker had all the time in the world to take an admittedly poor touch before firing past Pickford.
“For the second goal it was great play from Jamal [Lewis] so late on in the game. I took a bad touch, but it helped me out a little bit. All I had to do was adjust slightly.” – Callum Wilson
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Wilson fires in Newcastle’s second at Goodison Park
Steve Bruce was also quizzed by BT Sport on the Magpies’ noticeable change in tactics. On pressing Everton, the Newcastle boss responded:
“It’s something we’ve been trying to work on, something we’ve been trying to change. We’ve played a certain way for a long, long time – play a bit deeper, play on the counter attack. That’s something we’ve tried to work on and change. You hope you get a few results from it but that’s the way we want to go about our work. Over the last few weeks in particular we’ve tried to work on getting after the ball, pressing higher up the pitch and being more forward-thinking. They’ve bought into it. I saw signs against Leeds in midweek and hopefully this will give us a bit of confidence.” – Steve Bruce
On his team’s overall performance and the enforced substitution of Jamaal Lascelles (£4.2m), Bruce added:
“The way they went about their work today was excellent. It’s been a tough few weeks, to say the least. That can give them a bit of confidence, the way they played. We’ve picked up an injury, to our captain. It’s a hamstring injury. What we have found is the lads that have struggled with Covid, have struggled with fatigue. Thankfully Ciaran Clark has come back in today but it looks as if Jamaal will miss at least a good few weeks.” – Steve Bruce
DOMINO EFFECT
Calvert-Lewin managed just one attempt on goal against Newcastle, an effort which Karl Darlow (£5.0m) routinely tipped around the post.
The striker was brought in by over 800,000 Fantasy Premier League managers ahead of a promising run of fixures for Everton.
Speaking to BBC Match of the Day, Ancelotti lamented:
“We are not happy. The key point was that we didn’t have the same spirit as Newcastle. I know we have quality. The good run in the past is because we showed fantastic spirit on the pitch. We tried to play with quality today, but quality alone is not enough. You have to play with motivation and ambition – I think we forgot all these things at home today. We played Wednesday night and didn’t have time to recover. I brought in four or five players, so the reason was not tactical or physical. It was only mental. Our next game is a good opportunity to be back with our usual attitude. I’m so disappointed for today, but I cannot forget that this team has done really well.” – Carlo Ancelotti
OUT OF LUCAS
Lucas Digne (£6.0m) was also the subject of heavy investment ahead of the Gameweek 21 deadline.
The Everton left-back, who reverted to his usual position against Newcastle, racked up over 100,000 new owners.
Digne’s poor delivery against Newcastle was one of the chief factors in a shot-shy performance from Calvert-Lewin.
The Everton defence will undoubtedly be put to the test by Leeds on Wednesday, while Calvert-Lewin owners will be hoping he can profit from the attacking style of Marcelo Bielsa’s team.
Newcastle face immediate appealing fixtures at home to Crystal Palace and Southampton, before trips to Chelsea and Manchester United. Wilson may garner some interest should the Magpies continue to operate on the “front foot”, while Lewis present a bargain-bin option in defence.
Everton XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Digne, Keane, Mina, Coleman; Doucouré, Sigurdsson; Richarlison, James Rodriguez, Iwobi (André Gomes 63′); Calvert-Lewin.
Newcastle United XI (4-1-3-2): Darlow; Lewis, Lascelles (Clark 54′), Schar, Manquillo; Hayden; Shelvey, Almiron, Hendrick; Wilson, Fraser (Saint-Maximin 67′).
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