Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - That was a display of gritty defending from the Blues, along with a masterclass on substitutions from Carlo Ancelotti in the 2-1 win. Two games two wins, come on you Blues!

Premier League

Everton certainly created enough chances to win this one.

90+5’ - Ancelotti asking the assistant referee if he’s lost his whistle.. and there it is, Everton win 2-1!

90+3’ - Richarlison wins a corner, and now DCL is booked, for timewasting.

90+1’ - It’s going to be about four minutes added on, Mina has had an excellent influence in the back since he’s come on.

88’ - Mina and Carroll engaging in all kinds of wrestling, the Newcastle forward wins a freekick. The ball goes into the box and Carroll goes down in the box after Sidibe gives him a fingertip push, but Mason is not convinced again.

85’ - Willems comes off for Longstaff, the fullback has been a thorn in the Everton right with his dribbling.

80’ - Yerry Mina is now on for Baines and goes into the middle of the three-man backline, Holgate out on his left.
Mason breaks down the left with Davies feeding him, and wins a corner. Corner is half-cleared, Davies hits it into the ground and Mina heads over.

78’ - Sigurdsson slides in, Carroll dives and fools Mason into giving a freekick. Ball into the box, and Pickford claims well.

74’ - Double change for Newcastle, Gayle and Atsu on, Joelinton and Lejeune off. They’ve reverted to a 4-4-2 now.
Carroll wins a header, Atsu running into it while Delph looks to hook it, and its given as a foul, even for incidental contact. Dangerous area for a freekick, Shelvey takes it and the whistle goes for offside, Holgate had cleared it originally too.

70’ - The second change for Everton is going to be Seamus Coleman coming on for Theo Walcott, the Blues will be looking more like how they did against Burnley on Boxing Day.
Newcastle freekick to defend, and Schar goes down theatrically in the box, but Mason holds firm and is not interested.

68’ - We’ve done some research here. That was Tom Davies’ fifth yellow card, and he is going to be suspended for the Manchester City trip. The card count gets reset on December 31st, Davies was just one game away from that.

64’ - Everton goal!! DCL again, muffs his shot but still scores, 2-1!
Richarlison robbed Carroll in midfield, fed Walcott who set him free down the right, his cross across the box is simply spectacular and DCL bundles it home, poor touch but it’s in and they all count!

60’ - Everton take a quick freekick, Baines gets a fantastic cross in, headed back across the box by DCL and Richarlison’s shot is saved very well by Dubravka, Holgate taps in the rebound but the defender is offside. Had Richy’s shot gone in, that would have been a goal.
Ancelotti has seen enough and brings on Fabian Delph now for Moise Kean, who will be disappointed, he’s had quite a few chances to break his goalscoring duck.

58’ - Kean almost hits back right away, but it’s saved.
Newcastle win a corner now after Willems makes a run down the left, it’s cleared away.

56’ - Walcott gives away a cheap freekick from a dangerous area. Skimmed across the box, Sigurdsson (!) marking Carroll and the forward heads it down and right off Schar’s boot and into the far post. 1-1 now.

54’ - Still all Everton here, who are looking dangerous in possession with all the gaps in the Newcastle defence.
Lejeune gives away a cheap corner, it’s cleared authoritatively by Carroll and Newcastle break with numbers, Davies concedes the foul and the yellow card to stop them.

51’ - Clearing header from Keane finds Kean running two-on-two, he goes wide and shoots, but it’s straight at the goalie. He looks fired up.

50’ - Oh Kean! Moise after the loose ball and gets to it before Dubravka, who saves very well from the striker at point-blank distance.

48’ - Kean out on the right now, and wins a corner off Lejeune. Corner ricochets off Hayden’s arm and the away fans scream for a penalty, but Mason is unmoved.

46’ - Back underway for the second half. Carroll gets Sidibe with the elbow on an aerial challenge, and the fullback is down holding the side of his head, getting up groggily.

Halftime Thoughts - Everton have had a game of phases so far, where they’ve been in total domination, and then penned back in their own half, back and forth. Both teams have had plenty of chances, surely there’s more goals in this one, though at this point Blues will happily take a scoreless second half from both sides.

Premier League

45+1’ - Just the one minute of time added on. The clock has ticked quickly in an action-packed half. Holgate wins a header over Joelinton, and the two engage in some shoving and yelling, the Brazilian is booked.
Late freekick to the Magpies, but they try to get cute and it’s cleared, halftime Everton lead 1-0.

44’ - Almiron put through behind Sidibe and Holgate does well sprinting across to block him off, Almiron fires it well wide with the angle closing on him.

42’ - Everton’s front four have barely seen the ball for the last dozen or so minutes, and now Baines concedes a corner off Yedlin. Outswinger is cleared and Blues muff the counter.
Lejeune now has a pop from the edge of the box, just wide of the top corner.

40’ - All Newcastle now, and as they attack down their right Richarlison fouls Almiron. Freekick into the box and the Blues clear.

38’ - Newcastle exerting pressure on the Everton left, get in a couple of crosses that turns into a corner. That is cleared well but Davies is pulled back and Newcastle launch another attack, results in a fierce shot by Schar straight at Pickford, who punches clear. Whew.

33’ - When Everton have had the ball they’ve looked good, but have turned it over looking to make the pretty pass to spring a man in the final third. Need to be more incisive there.

31’ - The Magpies are awake now, and win a corner. Shelvey skims it across the box and Pickford can’t get to it as he’s boxed in by Joelinton. Ball headed back and forth across the box a couple of times before an Almiron shot skims over the bar.
Newcastle double up on their left and get a cross into the box and moments of panic again, Holgate blocks a Carroll snapshot brilliantly.

29’ - Newcastle strike, but it’s offside. Willems dances down the left and beats two Everton players, his cross to Almiron is hit first time and the ball bangs off the post, falls to Carroll who taps home, but the big man is clearly offside and VAR is not even needed.

26’ - Walcott fouled by the right touchline. Sigurdsson curls it in, too high, Blues forced to retreat. Davies then finds Walcott, who sends in a peach of a ball across the six yard box, too far out for Dubravka and no defender moves to cut it out, and unfortunately no Everton player does either.

24’ - Everton have really grown into the game since the first five or so minutes. They’ve controlled the ball well and shown plenty of composure in the attacking half.
Fernandes cuts down Richarlison in full flight, just minutes after getting away with a push in the back on DCL. Lee Mason keeps the cards in his pocket.

20’ - Baines overlapping on the left and the Kean & Walcott combination on the right pen the hosts right inside their box with a number of crosses, but no blue shirts on the end of them.

18’ - Keane beaten in the air, diagonal ball gets to Joelinton whose shot by the near post is saved well by Pickford.

15’ - Kean makes a great run to find himself in yards of space on the right gets in the box and his cutback is to Walcott, whose sidefooted shot is blocked, oh man that was going in.

12’ - That corner is cleared and Baines is fouled on the edge of the box. Just off to the left, has to be Sigurdsson.. off the wall, rebound to Siggy and he kicks it back into the box, falls to DCL and he taps it home!! 1-0 Blues!

10’ - Better from the Blues the last couple of minutes, stringing some passes together, getting crosses into the box and making some good runs.
Another corner is cleared, but Sigurdsson and Baines both get in return crosses that cause chaos in the box, Richarlison and DCL have shots blocked by Dubravka, another corner.
Keane gets to this one, mistimes the free header, off his shoulder, and given another corner.

7’ - Everton corner from the right, into the box and cleared. Toon look to break but Sidibe clears.

4’ - All Newcastle so far, as they are holding the ball quite comfortably in the Everton half.

1’ - Diagonal ball from Yedlin catches Sidibe upfield, and Joelinton puts Almiron through on goal, Keane does enough physically to dissuade him and his shot is wide. Whew, close shave there. Almiron could have gone down and possibly got a penalty.

Starting lineups - So Carlo Ancelotti has made a few changes bringing in some fresh legs. Looks like a return to the 4-4-2, with Leighton Baines, Mason Holgate, Michael Keane and Djibril Sidibé across the back. Tom Davies partners up with Gylfi Sigurdsson in the middle with Richarlison and Theo Walcott the wide midfielders, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin paired up with Moise Kean up top.

Steve Bruce has made four changes of his own, bringing back Andy Carroll and Jonjo Shelvey.

Preview

Everton go into this clash at Newcastle in a good frame of mind, having seen out Duncan Ferguson’s interim tenure unbeaten and off to a winning start under Carlo Ancelotti on Boxing Day.

The Blues were already depleted and exhausted before this month, but luckily have had some players coming back from injury so Ancelotti might have some rested options to pick from for the game today.

Hosts Newcastle endured a beating at Manchester United a couple of days ago, having taken the lead at Old Trafford before collapsing to a 4-1 loss. The Magpies have won three of their last five and are in decent form keeping things mostly tight in defence before that.

Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchday 20

Date and start time: Saturday, December 28th at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m ET / 3:00 p.m. BST

Stadium: St. James Park, Newcastle, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 39,572

Weather: 49°F/9°C, cloudy, 7% chance of precipitation, 8 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Starting XI: Pickford; Baines, Holgate, Keane, Sidibe; Richarlison, Davies, Sigurdsson, Walcott; Calvert-Lewin, Kean

Subs: Stekelenburg, Coleman, Digne, Mina, Delph, Bernard, Tosun

Newcastle

Last Meeting

The last time these two sides met was in March of this year, with the Blues having just come off a scoreless draw in the Goodison leg of the Merseyside Derby. The Toffees started the game in scintillating manner, dazzling St. James’ Park with arguably the best half of football they ever played away from home under Marco Silva. Everton took a 1-0 lead, hit the woodwork, conceded a penalty that was saved by Jordan Pickford (the Sunderland fan in him showed itself in his antics after) and then expanded that lead to 2-0 a minute later.

Whatever Rafa Benitez told his side at the break, they came out fired up and the capacity crowd roared their players on. Suddenly Everton looked shaky and nervous, and once Newcastle pulled one goal back after 65 minutes, there was only result possible. Two more goals in three minutes late on bagged all three points and cemented the Toffee’s fragile record away from home.