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Everton v Newcastle United

Match Preview

Everton are back at Goodison Park under the lights this Monday evening for the visit of Newcastle United as Roberto Martinez looks to shrug off last Tuesday's Capital One Cup disappointment and extend his side's unbeaten start in the Premier League.

As they have done so in all of their matches so far this season with the exception of the win over Chelsea, the Spaniard's side dominated their cup tie with Fulham, particularly in the first half, but, having grabbed just the one goal from their efforts, they were at risk of the Cottagers mounting a comeback in the second half. Fulham duly did and won the tie 2-1 thanks to two second-half goals.

With their focus now back on the League, the Blues are back home after beating West Ham 3-2 in thrilling fashion nine days ago and they have the huge incentive of fourth place being up for grabs should they beat the Barcodes in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

As he did against Stevenage in the League Cup second round, Martinez made eight changes on Tuesday and most of the team that started against the Hammers is expected to return to the starting line-up. That should include Ross Barkley, Kevin Mirallas, Leighton Baines and Tim Howard and it should be a landmark night for Gareth Barry, set to make his 500th appearance in the Premier League — only the 10th player to pass that milestone.

Martinez is suitably impressed by his new midfield general saying, "I don't think there are many more significant records than that. I think it represents his professionalism, the way he looks after himself, the way he sees the game and the experience that he brings into any side.

“And you can add the 50 appearances he's had for England, so far. He's in such a great moment in his career.”

Barry is conceivably battling for a starting berth with fit-again Gibson, whose struggle to regain match fitness is much needed in the Evertion midfield engine room, although it's possible — though unlikely — that Martinez could deploy them both in the centre at the the expense of Leon Osman and James McCarthy.

Indeed, the Spaniard has perhaps his most difficult selection to make since taking the reins at Everton, with Steven Pienaar also apparently recovered from a hamstring strain and Steven Naismith having scored in two of the last three games from attacking midfield.

Up front, Romelu Lukaku was given the nod at Fulham and he is vying for the striker's role with Nikica Jelavic and Arouna Kone who has yet to start a league game this season but is back in contention after recovering from injury of his own. Jelavic started at Upton Park last weekend but was replaced at half time by Lukaku and it's hard to look beyond the Belgian for the starting role against Newcastle.

For his part, Alan Pardew has struggled to get any consistency out of his team this season after a poor 2012-13 campaign — making a mockery of his those ill-advised comments a while back (or perhaps driving home his point but not in the way he intended!) about his club being "in a dfferent league" to Everton.

They lost their last Premier League game at home to Hull after twice leading and they sit in 16th coming into this match but they have won once on their travels so far, that a 2-1 win at Aston Villa two weeks ago.

Given the respective league form of the two sides and home advantage of Goodison Park, this really is a game from which the Blues should be looking to claim all three points. Victory would put them into the top four and onto the heels of the Arsenal at the summit and also signal Martinez's intent in his first season in charge.

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