It was an evening when Howe’s big calls paid off following the midweek defeat in Marseille.
Aaron Ramsdale, Lewis Miley and Anthony Elanga were handed rare starts while regulars like Lewis Hall, Joelinton and Nick Woltemade were also recalled.
Fabian Schar, Sandro Tonali, Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon, who have all been big players for Howe, were among those left on the bench as a result, just a day after the Newcastle head coach insisted he had “no favourites”.
Rather than the six changes disrupting the side – as such tweaks ultimately did at West Ham earlier this month, when Newcastle looked strangely lethargic – the visitors felt the benefit of rotating.
It is far from a coincidence that the recent return of Hall and fellow full-back Tino Livramento from injury has given Newcastle a new dimension down the flanks with their energy and creativity.
Miley, meanwhile, stepped up with a goal and an assist against Everton and this was the rapid Elanga’s best performance since his £55m move from Nottingham Forest last summer.
Joelinton battled away in the middle of the park, on a night Everton struggled with Newcastle’s physicality, and Woltemade scored a delightful lob to make it 3-0.
And though Ramsdale had little to do on his first league start, after the under-fire Nick Pope missed out with a groin injury, the goalkeeper brought a calmness in possession and Newcastle used the ball much more effectively, completing 88% of their passes.
Yet there was a change of mentality as well as personnel.
Newcastle made an aggressive start – Elanga winning a corner shortly after the kick-off – and Malick Thiaw headed the visitors in front from Miley’s in-swinger.
It was the quickest Premier League goal of the season, after just 55 seconds, but this was familiar territory for Newcastle.
They had taken the lead in each of their previous three away games in all competitions only to go on and lose.
This time, they defended resiliently as Everton probed.
Dan Burn, back in his favoured position at left-sided centre-back, made a couple of crucial blocks. As did Hall. Even Woltemade got back to cut out a cross from Jack Grealish.
That did not go unnoticed by Thiaw.
“We also scored early in other games away or went 1-0 up,” he told Match of the Day. “But, this time, even after we lost a bit of momentum in the game, we all stayed together, defended really well and it paid off.”
Newcastle have only conceded a measly four goals in the first half of league games this season, which should give Howe’s side a greater platform.
It certainly did on Saturday.
