The Championship beckoned for Newcastle when Eddie Howe took over. The Champions League does now. After smashing Spurs, they eviscerated Everton. With 10 goals in back-to-back, unexpectedly emphatic victories, with a seventh win in eight games, with an eight-point cushion on fifth place, it feels ever likelier that Newcastle will head to more exotic destinations next season and, indeed, that they will not be visiting Goodison Park at all.
Howe was probably the happiest Evertonian on Merseyside, victory taking him closer to getting a huge reward for a season of overachievement, but it may be tinged with sadness at the probable fate of his boyhood club. A clash of clubs who have had takeovers and injections of investment and ambition in recent years provided a case study of what clever and scattergun spending can achieve. Historic highs and lows loom closer: a first appearance in the Champions League for 20 years for Newcastle, a first relegation in 71 for Everton. It was a shocking night for Sean Dyche’s side.
