At £12 million apiece – allied to the deadline day signing of Seydou Doumbia who began on the bench – Steve McClaren has taken his spending to £80 million since taking over at St James’ Park. It’s a hefty gamble on securing safety, the presumption seemingly it’s better to spend the next TV cash now than risk a championship club making it theirs.
Everton attacking statistics
If the expectation is Newcastle will ensure heavyweight attacking will compensate for lightweight defending, McClaren had cause for concern by the limpness of his side at both ends of the pitch.
Everton were discomforted only by their initial inability to stretch the advantage that came on 23 minutes ,when Cleverley was found in space by Bryan Oviedo and had time to pick out Lennon. The winger’s instant turn and shot wrong-footed Rob Elliot and Newcastle were grimly holding on until home anxiety took hold prior to Barkley's spot kick.
Elliot had already denied Cleverley as early as the fifth minute, a shot from distance pushed wide.
When Romelu Lukaku’s free-kick was narrowly over a minute before Lennon’s strike, the warnings were growing and it seemed a matter of when the breakthrough would come.
Match possession
Newcastle lacked fluency and – more worrying for McClaren – there was little spirit for 70 minutes as Everton’s midfield dominated. Cleverley was especially impressive patrolling the left hand side, but regularly drifting inward to offer a ceaseless supply of clever passes.
A second Everton goal looked inevitable, and could have followed ten minutes before the break when Barkley attempted to chip Elliot from 30 yards.
The Newcastle keeper headed a clearance from outside the box and scrambled back to his goal, relieved the midfielder’s attempt was overhit.
Lennon had another attempt blocked on 41 minutes, at which point the visitors’ were pining for the interval.
Newcastle United attacking statistics
Townsend and Shelvey were spending too much time on the periphery, the centre-midfielder displaying common traits of waiting until the ball is at his feet before he moves up a gear – at his worst a sort of poor man’s Yaya Toure, and at his best also a sort of poor man’s Yaya Toure. His capacity to collect yellow cards for crude challenges is not too helpful, either.
Townsend was also short of sharpness, perhaps understandably after so long without a game, but given Newcastle’s plight they are in no position to wait.
McClaren was not helped by an injury to centre-half Chancel Mbemba, and he made a further change at half-time replacing Paul Dummett with Rolando Aarons.
More gratefully received by the visitors was an injury to Lukaku who needed lengthy treatment haven taken a kick in the back in the first half. He did not return after the break, Kone asked to lead the line. A major threat was gone, but the lead should have been doubled within five minutes of the restart.
Lennon unfathomably had space to pick his spot facing goal, but equally perplexingly fired directly at Elliott. Kone struck the rebound over the bar.
Newcastle’s biggest hope was nervousness in the hosts would grow as they failed to extend their lead to unassailable status. Everton had won just three home league this season before this, their last on November 21.
Martinez has long argued the points tally does not match the performance level, and he’d have been rehearsing the same speech if his side did not consolidate its advantage here.
They should have been four up before the hour, Barkley frustrated again when Elliot pushed the kind of curling shot from distance that is becoming a trademark onto the bar.
It was no surprise when McClaren made his third change 10 minutes into the second half as Henri Saivet made way for Aleksander Mitrovic.
The immediate impact was negligible as the woodwork once more intervened to prevent a Shelvey own goal after he headed Cleverley’s free-kick towards his own goal.
Everton hit the post for a third time in six minutes when another Cleverley free-kick had Elliot scrambling to his right.
Newcastle finally offered a threat on 65 minutes when Mitrovic reached Aaron’s left wing cross but could only direct the ball wide – the first sign that Everton might succumb to nerves.
Ayoze Perez then tested Joel Robles with a volley as Newcastle belatedly found belief in the closing stages.
But that was extinguished when Aarons stupidly brought down Lennon four minutes from time, allowing Barkley to give the scoreline a fairer complexion. Jamaal Lascelles professional foul - he saw red- enabled the youngster to cheekily chip another pen with the last kick of the game.
- Telegraph