On a night where Newcastle had the opportunity to move out of the bottom three and show that they were reinvigorated by their influx of new, big-money signings, the Magpies’ waved the white flag and succumbed to a 3-0 pummelling at Goodison Park with one of their worst displays of the season.
Steve McClaren’s ludicrous decision to deploy Ayoze Perez as a lone striker set the tone for the evening, as Newcastle’s lack of ideas, quality, backbone and fighting-spirit was laid bare for all to see.
Everton were without a Premier League victory since their 1-0 Boxing Day triumph at St James’ Park, however, the Toffees’ hardly broke a sweat as they cruised to a convincing 3-0 win, which would have been all the more resounding if it wasn’t for Rob Elliot’s heroics in the Magpies’ goal.
McClaren claimed in his pre-match press conference that Newcastle now “without doubt had enough quality to avoid relegation” but, with teams around them picking up points and the Magpies’ still looking toothless in attack, clueless in midfield and disjointed in defence, an unthinkable drop to the Championship is looking more and more likely by the week.
The Magpies are now two points from safety and five points behind 16th placed Swansea City with 14 games remaining, meaning that anything other than 3pts against a well-drilled and resolute West Brom side this Saturday could see them cut adrift at the foot of the table.
Here’s how the Newcastle players rated in their dismal 3 -0 surrender to Everton