The Chris Beesley talking points after Everton made it four wins in their last six, unbeaten Premier League away games with a 3-2 victory at Newcastle United
Jarrad Branthwaite of Everton celebrates his goal during the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Everton at St. James's Park in Newcastle, on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Michael Driver/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Jarrad Branthwaite celebrates after setting Everton on their way to victory at Newcastle United(Image: Michael Driver/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Jarrad Branthwaite is back as he set Everton on their way to a famous win at Newcastle United with the opening goal in this five-goal thriller. The headed effort was the first time the Blues defender had found the net in 22 months since his shot against Liverpool proved too hot to handle for Alisson Becker, on a night when the hosts secured their first Goodison Park victory in a Merseyside Derby for 13-and-a-half years – or since their 6ft 5in colossus was eight years old.
Following the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United at Hill Dickinson, Branthwaite insisted that his goal for the season was still to break into England’s squad for the World Cup finals. However, despite what his manager David Moyes declared in his pre-match press conference for the trip to Newcastle about the 23-year-old being just as comfortable at left-back as he is at centre-back, it seems unlikely that he is going to reinvent himself as the next Ashley Cole between now and the end of the campaign.
Going off in Everton’s historic final game at Goodison against Southampton and subsequently missing the 1-0 win at Newcastle on the final day of 2024/25, Branthwaite missed eight months of competitive football through hamstring injuries. These problems ensured he wasn’t on another plane to the USA last summer as the Blues headed to New York, Chicago and Atlanta for pre-season and he subsequently had to undergo a medical procedure in October to correct the issue after suffering a major setback.
The road to recovery has been long and hard but playing at the ground where he won his only England cap to date as a substitute against Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 3, 2024, Branthwaite showed Thomas Tuchel, who has been an interested spectator at several impressive Everton away wins this season – including Man United and Aston Villa – that he offers a combination of physicality and assurance on the ball beyond many of the Three Lions’ other defensive options.
Those talents also bring the best out of James Tarkowski and Vitalii Mykolenko either side of him and while the Blues’ defence was breached twice here, hopefully more clean sheets can now lie ahead.
Strike partnership
It seems unlikely that Beto and Thierno Barry will ever forge an effective strike partnership when they’re on the pitch together, but in their separate ways the pair of them both played pivotal roles in ensuring that Everton picked up their 12th three points on the road since Moyes returned.
The only previous occasion that they both netted in the same game – and on that occasion they were both on the field together in the second half – came in the rather more sombre circumstances for Blues as they were defeated 4-2 at home by Brentford in their opening fixture of this calendar year.
Although Barry played with a partner in a 4-4-2 formation at Villarreal last season, few Premier League sides retain the dual striker system that was so prevalent only a generation ago. While Moyes himself would still set up with such tactics in his early years at Goodison Park, the arrival of talisman Tim Cahill would pave the way for Everton’s switch to deploying a lone frontman that they’ve never gone back from.
When asked about Beto offered when shaping his thinking to hand him his first Premier League start since the trip to Turf Moor on December 27, the the Blues boss offered tough love to both players by suggesting it was just as much down to what Barry might have been lacking in recent weeks.
Here we saw why both of them are still lacking when being top all-round Premier League strikers, but players who can still contribute in key moments. Unlike Barry, who had put in plenty of hard running for little reward against the Red Devils, Beto seemed in the mood for the physical battle against Newcastle’s burly defenders from the start, offering a genuine focal point to the attack.
However, having put Everton back in front with a predatory finish from a rebound, we saw the other side to what he brings (or doesn’t), when outmuscling Malick Thiaw only to smash his shot on to the crossbar when a subtle finish would have put the game beyond doubt.
Replaced by Barry after that, the Frenchman showed hat while he’s cut a frustrated figure ploughing a lonely furrow when leading the line from the start, he was the right man in the right place to grab the winner in the scruffiest but most glorious of fashions.
Regal once more from the African kings
Idrissa Gueye and Iliman Ndiaye were both given a hero’s welcome on their return to Finch Farm from the Africa Cup of Nations following Senegal’s dramatic triumph over hosts Morocco, but since returning to the Everton side after missing seven matches apiece, the pair of continental kings had hardly been regal in their performances.
Other than Ndiaye’s well-struck penalty in a game that Bournemouth would ultimately win and two-time winner Gueye’s assist for Barry’s equaliser against Leeds United, there had been little to cheer for either of them, despite both being a couple of Moyes’ most trusted lieutenants.
The 62-year-old felt that the duo put in their best displays since coming back against Newcastle and he wasn’t the only one who thought that. Like many of their Blues’ team-mates there seemed to be a zip in their respective play and they dovetailed well together, combined effectively with their passing on several occasions.
Ndiaye, who was Everton’s last scorer last season, hasn’t found the net from open play since their last trip to the North East in early November when they drew 1-1 with Sunderland.
There was no wonder-goal here, but the former Olympique Marseille man still burst forwards on several occasions on mazy runs and once again showed that for all his flicks and tricks, he’s always willing to put a shift in out of possession as well.
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