By handing a crushing loss to struggling Everton, who are still firmly rooted in the Premier League’s relegation zone, Newcastle made a significant step toward competing in the Champions League next season.
Eddie Howe’s team maintains third place in the race to participate in Europe’s premier club tournament after a convincing victory at Goodison Park, eight points ahead of Aston Villa in fifth place and with a game still to play.
For the visitors, Callum Wilson scored twice in each half, first poking home the first goal and then curling a beautiful 25-yard shot into the top corner. Joelinton, a Brazilian, scored between those two, heading in from close range after superb play by Joe Willock had helped to set up the goal.
Dwight McNeil did score immediately from a corner kick to make it 3-1, but substitute Jacob Murphy scored Newcastle’s fourth goal just a minute later to hand Everton its 17th defeat of the year, dropping them to 19th place and two points from safety.
For the first time in 20 years, Newcastle will play in the Champions League next season.
Under Howe, the Magpies are a disciplined team that followed up their 6-1 demolition of Tottenham last Sunday with another crushing victory.
There was only going to be one winner in this match after they defeated Everton, and it was old foe Wilson who once again proved to be the curse against Sean Dyche’s squad.
Everton’s loss was extremely discouraging, and now there will be a lot of doubts about their ability to stay in the Premier League. They saw a lot of the ball in the opening exchanges without really posing a threat, helped by a noisy crowd that quickly rallied behind the squad.
The first of five crucial games in their quest to avoid dropping out of the top division for the first time in 72 years is a huge matchup against third-placed “Foxes” Leicester City next Monday at the King Power stadium.
