Everton took a leaf out of AFC Wimbledon's book on Saturday evening by putting 10 men behind the ball at all times and making life difficult for Newcastle United.
Much like the game against the Dons a few days earlier, Newcastle dominated possession and passed the ball around well, for the most part.
However, once the Magpies got into the final third, it didn't seem to matter who was in possession, they instantly turned wasteful either picking the wrong pass, not shooting when they should or simply losing possession.
It was a frustrating thing to watch happen all over again, but again, like the game against Wimbledon, Newcastle were awarded a penalty to help them out, but unlike the midweek game, this time the Magpies could not take advantage.
Former Evertonian whose every touch was greeted with loud boos from all around Goodison Park, Anthony Gordon, stepped up to take the penalty against his former teammate Jordan Pickford.
The former Everton man versus the gobby Mackem. The headlines were just waiting to be written, and unfortunately for Newcastle, it was Pickford who came out on top with Anthony Gordon, possibly distracted by the enormous advertising hoarding behind the goal reading the name of Newcastle's director of football Paul Mitchell, fired a tame shot that was saved by the former Sunderland man.
Gordon has taken to X to shoulder the responsibility, but in truth, we shouldn't have been relying on a penalty to beat that Everton side anyway.
Gordon praised the performance of his team mates before trying to take the blame.
"A great performance, just couldn’t put them away, and that’s on me. Never easy missing but you’ll never ever see me shy away from stepping up for my team. Thanks to everyone that travelled - till next time"
In truth, we love this post from Gordon - he takes the responsibility but immediately lets us know that he'd do it again in a heartbeat. That's a proper professional and one that we are proud to have in our team.
To paraphrase Chumbawumba, if you get knocked down you get back up again.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
10 | 13 | 25 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
10 | 10 | 23 |
3 |
Nottingham Forest
|
10 | 7 | 19 |
4 |
Chelsea
|
10 | 8 | 18 |
5 |
Arsenal
|
10 | 6 | 18 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
10 | 2 | 18 |
7 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
10 | 11 | 16 |
8 |
Brighton
|
10 | 3 | 16 |
9 |
Bournemouth
|
10 | 1 | 15 |
10 |
Newcastle United
|
10 | 0 | 15 |
11 |
Brentford
|
9 | 0 | 13 |
12 |
Fulham
|
9 | 0 | 12 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
10 | -3 | 12 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
10 | -6 | 11 |
15 |
Leicester
|
10 | -4 | 10 |
16 |
Everton
|
10 | -7 | 9 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
10 | -5 | 7 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
10 | -11 | 5 |
19 |
Southampton
|
10 | -12 | 4 |
20 |
Wolves
|
10 | -13 | 3 |