Everton 1-1 Newcastle: A gritty performance and great point for Benitez's battlers

by Olly Hawkins · Published 5 December 2018, 22:26

Many say you'll be frustrated not to win a game if you take the lead, but that is a VERY good point for Newcastle United - especially when you consider what a good Everton side we've just come up against.

Everton's 11 starters and the two subs that came on cost a combined £235 million. That's FOUR times the amount we paid for the 13 players we used tonight. Were we defensive? Yes. But we did a job on them well, staying organised, battling for every ball and even having a chance to win it late on - which we could and should have taken if Atsu had his shooting boots on.

The West Ham hammering burst our bubble on Saturday and brought us quickly back down to earth, and although this game doesn't send us flying up the table, it's the sort of gritty performance and good point that should help us survive this season.

Rondon took his goal well and did his job well despite often being isolated up top, Atsu was much better and Murphy delivered a brilliant assist for the goal (but struggled to do much else after), but it was our back six that did so well.

https://twitter.com/1AntB/status/1070409781997907970

Yedlin and Manquillo put in solid second half shifts after struggling initially, Schar showed his class, Lascelles' presence and aerial ability was key late on and Fernandez was rock solid once again, putting in a goal-saving block to deny Sigurdsson in the first half. And then, saving perhaps the best until last, there's Dubravka. He was commanding from crosses, a safe pair of hands all night and pulled off one of the saves of the season to deny what looked a certain goal as Tosun went to tap in from two yards out.

Here’s how the table looks after tonight and last night's results:

We're top of our mini league, with results elsewhere going VERY well for us over the past 48 hours. Fulham lost a home lead to draw with Leicester tonight, Burnley surrendered a 1-0 lead and lost 1-3 to Liverpool at Turf Moor, Southampton were beaten comfortably by Spurs at Wembley, Huddersfield lost at Bournemouth, Cardiff were well beaten at West Ham and Palace were hammered by Brighton.

Here’s our next five fixtures between now and the new year: