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New Everton signing Oumar Niasse, who has joined from Lokomotiv Moscow, is not yet eligible to make his debut.
Kevin Mirallas and Muhamed Besic remain out with injuries, while Tim Howard will be assessed after suffering a knock in training on Monday.
Andros Townsend could make his Newcastle debut, while deadline-day signing Seydou Doumbia may be available if his visa arrives in time.
Jack Colback and Paul Dummett could return from injuries.
Editor’s Note: Everton really could do with a win in the League, they’ve only registered one victory in their last 10 matches. The pressure is slowly building on Roberto Martinez as his side have most certainly underachieved with the talent at their disposal, tonight they play host to struggling but newly big spending Newcastle.
A routine F.A. Cup win on Sunday away at Carlisle would have papered over the cracks but it’s the patchy league form which is the concern for Everton. They currently find themselves in 12th place and if they were to lose tonight and Chelsea win then they would slide even further down the table. There’s no danger of Everton getting relegated but there certainly could be a danger of Martinez leaving Goodison Park at the end of the season.
Last time out in the League they were beaten by another struggling side in the way of Swansea. Francesco Guidolin masterminding a vital win in his first game in charge but Everton wasted a hatful of chances that Afternoon none more so than Seamus Coleman who blazed under the bar from all of 2 yards in injury time which would have snatched a point for The Toffees.
New signing Oumar Niasse is not available Tonight due to not being registered in time, but is this signing the start of a process to replace Romelu Lukaku his Goalscoring form combined with Everton’s League position could point to a departure in the Summer. The Belgian International is too good to be playing for a side in the bottom half of the table.
Their opposition is also in the bottom half of the table and worse than that the relegation zone. Newcastle have spent the most of all the Premier League clubs this Month and staggeringly have spent more than the whole of La Liga. It seems as if Mike Ashley has decided to go all out and loosen the purse strings in a bid for Premier League survival.
It makes sense to at least have a go, with the massive Television contract just around the corner it’s better to spend money now knowing if you stay up then that outlay will be more than recouped than opposed to getting relegated and regretting not buying players when you had the chance.
Last time out in the League, Newcastle lost to Watford on their travels that was their first defeat in 3 games but they need to picking up wins with more regularity. A win Tonight would see them move out of the drop zone ahead of fellow rivals Norwich who after losing to Tottenham last night have now lost their last 4 matches so Steve McClaren will be hoping they can take full advantage of The Canaries precarious situation.
The last time these two sides met was on Boxing Day with a Tom Cleverley header in Injury Time snatching all 3 points for Everton. Tonight I think Everton have to win this one as otherwise Martinez is going to be under even more pressure. I’ll go for a Home win but with both teams scoring.
