Newcastle finally see £128m vision as blueprint becomes clear for Howe’s travel sickness

In one moment – and in the same week their £55m signing trained with his new teammates for the first time – £128m worth of summer investments started to make far more sense for Newcastle.

Anthony Elanga was the willing runner no other club would spend such money on, refusing to give up on Tino Livramento’s ball in behind.

Nick Woltemade was the striker standing at 6ft 6ins who Everton deciding it wasn’t worth bothering to mark, and who similarly had no other buyers at the price a desperate Newcastle were willing to pay.

Yet as Elanga battled to play in Woltemade for the most insouciant of finishes to preface some refreshing Hill Dickinson half-time booing, it seemed as though Eddie Howe might have finally gone some way to cracking the code.

Newcastle had gone almost eight months without a Premier League away win; their last against a team currently in the division was a further 28 days prior. Yet Everton were blitzed as the Magpies suddenly took flight.

Howe made six changes to the side which imploded against Marseille and each helped define this startling win on the manager’s birthday.

Aaron Ramsdale was certainly an improvement on his apparently ill predecessor. Lewis Hall set up one goal and was exceptional. Lewis Miley scored and assisted. Joelinton ran around bloody loads. Elanga and Woltemade both made the sort of impacts their price tags demand.

Everton, so exceptional in beating Manchester United at Old Trafford with ten men for 80 minutes, were torn to shreds by a better, hungrier and more focused team.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall did continue his own personal Goal of the Month competition with a sublime pluck out of the air and composed finish from James Tarkowski’s speculative high ball, but Newcastle had long since made their point and claimed all three by then.

Howe will do well to keep a hold of this blueprint. It is far easier to design than execute but a solid defence fortifying a potent counter-attack is the most compelling answer to Newcastle’s away problem, far more so than a high line or blindly persisting with the same tired midfield.

And fair play to Malick Thiaw for trying to handle most of those facets single-handedly. It seems whomever partners the centre-half is enriched by the experience and his attempt at making inevitable Premier League history left Everton stunned.

Thiaw further lowered a bar Phil Foden had already set earlier in the day with the quickest goal of the Premier League season, with his towering header on the hour bookmarking a dominant and confident display.

Everton were unbeaten in three and eyeing the top half. Newcastle stunned Manchester City last week but the midweek defeat to Marseille was their fourth in a row on their travels, a run in which they had conceded ten and scored four.

Almost completely reversing those fortunes across 90 potentially transformative minutes was quite the trick, led by one of the signings of the season who excelled in defence and attack.