Alcaraz presses his case for permanent move with winner for impressive Everton

There weren’t many people, including many Everton fans, who were giving the Blues much of a chance against Newcastle today. With victory over Southampton having secured a 13th-place finish and the emotional celebration of Goodison Park having closed the volume of the Toffees’ top-flight history at the Grand Old Lady, their season was effectively over. David Moyes’s players could be forgiven for having one eye on their summer jollies.

Newcastle, on the other hand, came into the weekend as one of the form teams in the Premier League, having recovered from a rocky first half of the campaign to roar back into the Champions League qualification places. Blanked only twice on their own turf all season, able to field star man Alexander Isak up front despite talk of him carrying a knock and needing to win to guarantee a top-five finish, the general consensus was that this result was a foregone conclusion.

What transpired was anything but. Indeed, despite having nothing to play for, Everton put in a stellar performance that was as good as any this season and triumphed at St James’s Park for the first time since 2020 when Carlo Ancelotti was in the early days of his all-too-brief reign as the Blues’ boss.

Inspired by the indefatigable Idrissa Gueye in midfield, bolstered by an impressive display from a completely new central defensive partnership of Michael Keane and Jake O’Brien, and spear-headed up front by the robust and determined Beto, Everton made a mockery of their form under Sean Dyche that had them languishing in 17th place and just a point above the relegation zone when the former Burnley boss was sacked in January.

Moyes’s men frustrated and contained Eddie Howe’s much-vaunted Newcastle for long stretches of this encounter and when their back line was breached, Jordan Pickford stood tall to deny the hosts and rankle the Geordie faithful despite their relentless booing every time he touched the ball.

And with better finishing from Beto or his late replacement, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the scoreline would have been far more emphatic than the sole strike delivered by Charly Alcaraz, but both strikers came up woefully short in one-on-one situations with Nick Pope who matched his opposite number’s exploits between the sticks even if he could nothing about Everton's winner.

With Jarrad Branthwaite having joined his colleague James Tarkowski in the treatment last weekend when he limped out of the win over the Saints with a hamstring injury and Seamus Coleman only lasting 18 minutes into that final game hame, Moyes was forced to make changes at the back once more, drafting Keane back in at centre-back and Ashley Young at right-back for his last appearance before his contract expires.

Jack Harrison was preferred to Dwight McNeil wide on the right but Alcaraz received the nod ahead of the departing Abdoulaye Doucouré with Iliman Ndiaye deployed wide on the left and took his opportunity to shine with a brilliantly headed second-half goal.

The early exchanges hinted at something a bit more routine, however, as 52,000 Barcodes roared their backing for their team in the hope of cajoling them to the three points that would punch their ticket on Europe’s gravy train for the second time in three years.

Alcaraz and Young were fouls in dangerous areas around their own box and Anthony Gordon, who saw his penalty saved in the reverse fixture back in October, tried a speculative effort that drifted over in the fifth minute but Everton soon began to serve notice of their own attacking intentions.

James Garner spurned a good opening shortly afterwards by delaying his cross and then delivering his cut-back straight to a black-and-white shirt while Beto showed great determination to bustle past Sven Botman down the left and then find Ndiaye but the Senegalese’s shot was charged down.

As the Magpies continued to huff and puff at one end, Pope was now called into action at the other, first to smother Alcaraz’s 25-yard direct free-kick attempt after Beto had been fouled by Bruno Guimaraes before the keeper parried Garner’s stinging drive away from goal.

Then the pendulum swung the other way as Tino Livramento eventually accelerated past Harrison down Newcastle’s left and his cross almost dropped invitingly for Harvey Barnes before Pickford claimed the loose ball. Then England’s No 1, putting on an almost faultless display in a stadium where he has on occasion lost his head somewhat, pulled off an impressive double save to foil Sandro Tonali’s low drive and Isak’s follow-up at his near post.

The Magpies had their tails up and after Pickford had helped a Botman header off a corner over his bar, the keeper made another save to deny the same defender, again down by his left-hand upright to keep things goalless.

Yet perhaps the best chance fell to Everton in the closing phase of the first half. Garner worked the ball out to Vitalii Mykolenko and when the Ukrainian swung the cross into a dangerous area, Alcaraz met it powerfully on the run, only for Pope to acrobatically tip the header over.

If Howe had hoping, with Aston Villa still level at Old Trafford and Chelsea goalless with Nottingham Forest, that Everton would ease up after the interval, he would be disappointed because the visitors came out for the second half still in purposeful mood.

Harrison was played in down the right channel following incredible work by Ndiaye and when his cross struck the hand of a defender, there were loud claims for handball from the away fans and the Blues’ players but they were waved away by referee Tony Harrington, with the decision (similar to the one at Fulham a fortnight ago where a penalty for Mykolenko’s handball was rejected by Darren England) upheld by VAR.

A few minutes later, an excellent lay-off by Beto allowed Alcaraz to drive forward and use Harrison as a decoy to his right before unloading an arrowing shot that Pope did well to turn behind and Garner couldn’t crane his header around the ball from the resulting corner to guide an open header onto the target.

And in the 57th minute, Harrison managed to retain the ball following a loose touch on a deep cross towards the back post but could only scoop it over the crossbar.

With 64 on the clock, Everton made the telling breakthrough in a move that started with Gueye’s superb interception as the Barcodes tried to mount an attack through the centre-circle. The Senegalese found his compatriot, Ndiaye who delayed until Mykolenko arrived on the overlap and when the full-back clipped a teasing ball into the box, Alcaraz leapt, Tim Cahill-style, over Dan Burn as the big centre-back lost his footing and steered a perfect header into the far corner.

It was the Argentine’s second goal for Everton since arriving on loan during the winter transfer window and it will have done his chances of securing a permanent move to Merseyside no end of good.

Mykolenko’s awful giveaway just a few minutes after the restart required Pickford to once more save from Isak while Alcaraz blocked an effort from Barnes before he and the injured Ndiaye made way for Doucouré and McNeil with a quarter of an hour to go.

The clash between United and Villa began to tilt Newcastle’s way when the Red Devils profited from a horrendous refereeing decision at one end before taking the lead at the other but Howe was pressing his men forward regardless, having introduced Callum Wilson and William Osula to try and add more firepower up front.

Fabian Schär was also pushed up as an auxiliary attacker in the closing stages and he blazed a shot a few feet wide that temporarily had St James’s Park on its feet ready to celebrate before Kieran Trippier sailed a free-kick wide of the target a minute later.

Everton probably should have killed the game before Schär, Guimaraes and Osula all went close to equalising in stoppage time. Beto’s number was already on the linesman’s board when Burn’s error sent the Portuguese away but with just the goalkeeper to beat he shovelled the ball wide with his weaker left foot.

Calvert-Lewin then had the chance to go one better when McNeil put him in the clear with an even better situation but he shot straight at Pope and couldn’t keep the rebound down, skying it disappointingly into the stands off his shin.

The Blues held out, though, to claim a hugely impressive victory that means they end 2024/25 with three straight victories, the first time an Everton team has done that for 36 years.

If this gritty, obdurate but often attractive performance was an example of the standards that Moyes is going to instil in and expect from his Everton squad, it bodes very well for a future that already looks bright ahead of the move to Bramley-Moore Dock. The Blues went to the home of a trophy-winning outfit that has now qualified for the Champions League and left as worthy winners.

The team could well look very different come August as the task of rebuilding the squad gets underway over the summer, with as many as 10 players potentially leaving, but it looks and feels as though the manager is determined to take this club forward into the new ground and to build upon a half-season that, extrapolated out to 38 games, would have seen Everton finish 8th this term. Quite the shift from the Dyche doldrums...

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