This is what they paid the money for.
Salvation. Survival. The chance to do it all again next season. Will this fixture be part of the calendar in 2022-23? That is what we do not know. It may be more a question for Everton than Newcastle now.
It wasn’t always pretty, not always silky and at times rather tense. Yet Newcastle deserved their win, it vindicates their transfer window, and most importantly sucks Everton ever closer to the bottom three, and the void below. They were poor here, no doubt about it. Unlucky to lose three players before the hour to injury – Demarai Gray, Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes – but poor nonetheless.