Premier League Match 34 - Everton 1 Southampton 1

Where's Jordan Going?

A visit to the Goodison Park graveyard where every year, we turn up knowing that we are playing a team who aren’t particularly good and we invariably lose or snatch a draw from the jaws of victory in the last minute. Like West Ham, Everton have thrown a lot of money at it in the past couple of seasons so really should be doing rather better than hovering around in lower mid-table. When they first found themselves with a load more money to throw around, the Everton fan base seem to forget it self a little bit and started acting like Liverpool fans. Thankfully because old habits die hard, most now seem to have settled down and Everton and their fans are acting with a little bit of class again.  It’s the half of Liverpool that doesn’t think it’s not English.

They have bought a touch of class back to the Premier League with the appointment of Carlo Anchelotti who has been a success virtually everywhere he has been. It annoyed me that the media, which is of course almost inclusively populated with ex-Liverpool players, was heavily suggesting that Everton were over reaching themselves somehow by appointing this manager. The same of course was said about Saints when we appointed Ralph.  All us ‘other-14’ clubs should just be happy with what we’ve got and we’re not allowed to have nice things.

Having said that, over the past few years since the money came in, Everton’s approaching the transfer market has been somewhat haphazard with many of the players that have been bought in on big-money, not featuring regularly - Moise Kean being the latest.  Ironically, it’s youth team product Dominic Calvert-Lewin who has emerged and had a decent season. One big money buy that is paying off is Richarlison, who is a very good player despite being a very big shitbag who will no doubt at some point today be rolling around all over the place screaming his head off despite having been barely touched.   On the other side of the coin, Everton seem to be obsessed with Arsenal castoffs as well, signing Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi. Walcott’s best days are about 10 years behind him and Iwobi is one of those players that does the odd good thing every 10 games or so but nowhere near often enough to justify the £30 million plus that Everton shelled out for him. Defensively they are strong but slow with Michael Keane and Mason Holgate the usual central defenders.  They’re good at full-back with Coleman and Digne and of course they have current England No.1, the occasionally brilliant but occasionally erratic and flappy, Jordan Pickford.

Ralph’s media briefing in the build up to the game reveals that Djenepo has a knock and that Boufal and Vestergaard would also not be available meaning that were once again going to have a load of kids on the bench. The good news is that our former skipper, Pierre Hojbjerg is fit again.  Unsurprisingly, our team is unchanged from the City game with Che Adams and Oriol Romeu keeping their places.

Saints start again really well and put what looks a very ponderous Everton side under pressure.  After 10 minutes we have the ball in the net as Ings crosses from the left and Adams knocked it back in from the right and Armstrong turns into the roof of the net from 4 yards out.   Not too mch excitement as it looks offside at first glance and the lino has his flag up so it’s no surprise when VAR rules it out.

Everton make a rare foray into our half and it’s youngster Anthony Gordon who swings over a decent cross, which is flicked on by Richarlison and there’s Iwobi with a free shot from 10 yards which he blasts straight at McCarthy.  It’s a rare moment of Everton having the ball under control in our half but slightly alarming that Iwobi found himself in so much space.

Normal service resumes with Saints pressure.  Ings is fouled on the left by the lumbering Yerry Mina and though it’s a long way out, JWP gets the free kick on target and Pickford extends to his full 5 foot 5 to tip it over the bar.  Jwp fires in the corner and Ings gets to it at the near post and flicks goalwards – Pickford sticks up one hand to tip it on the bar and then gets the bit of luck you need as the ball comes down, hits his other hand and then hits the bar again before being cleared.

Another cross comes in and Armstrong cushions it down to JWP who goes over under the challenge of Andre Gomes.  Lee Mason gives a penalty instantly.  That looks like bullshit to me straight away.  Looks like JWP fell into him.  Away we go to VAR and it gets upheld, which seems a bit bizarre.  Then the replay is shown and even at my most biased I wouldn’t have given it.  Anyway, up steps JWP and gives it his best whipped free-kick routine and other only trouble is that it’s 12 yards instead of 20 and it smacks off the bar and over.  Fucks sake.

Having an excellent game on the right is KWP and he’s involved at the start of the move which sends Armstrong away, running towards the mythical red zone on the edge of the Everton penalty area and he has a go with his left foot which is a horrible shank but it turns into be a perfect pass through to Danny Ings who despite the ball being behind him, manages to dance around Pickford, who hasn’t got a clue what the fuck is going on and then poke it into the net from 3 yards. There is a large element of luck about the goal because Armstrong didn’t mean that and I’m not 100% sure that Danny meant that either but lucky or not, we deserve to finally be 1-0 in front.

Don't Disallow it Mason!

Another chance straight away as Redmond’s cross is flicked by Adams towards Ings but Mina manages to get it away.  We need a second as theis lot aren’t good enough to come back from two down.  Everton break and Richarlison flicks on in midfield, a split second before Jack Stephens clatters the bastard.  The ball goes Gordon on the left hand side and is put on the weights by KWP in an excellent bit of defending and we get a goal kick.

Having put together a virtually perfect 40 minutes, Saints then fuck it up, allowing Everton to play out and Digne on the left hand side had the time to play a great crossfield ball and Richarlison had got in between Saints defenders and he takes one very good touch before lifting it over McCarthy.  It’s easy to blame Bednarek for the goal because it’s his man but he has come across to cover Calvert-Lewin who Stephens was supposed to be marking but having done that, Bertrand does not come across and picked up Richarlison so all round, it’s a bit of a fuck up.

Half time, we’ve dominated the game and been the better side by a mile and it’s one fucking all.  I’m relatively calm as half time with give Ralph a chance to reset and we should get back to our football which will be too good for this lot.  Ancelotti drage Iwobi at half time and sends on Sidibe at right back and as the second half starts, it appears they’ve gone to a back 5.

Normal service is resumed at the start of the second-half as Ings produces a ridiculous back heel flick through to Adams and he gets away a side footed effort towards the far top corner but Pickford sees it all the way. Adams is putting in his best performance so far in a Saints shirt, looking lively since the first whistle.

Ancelotti’s tactical change now becomes clear.  He’s fortified the defence and is going to miss out midfield which is a good plan if one of your midfielders is Tom Davies, who is shite.  So, it’s basically a case of them banging the ball up to Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin and looking for bits and pieces.  

The game then goes to shit as a spectacle a bit as we struggle to make any headway against the back 5 and deep midfield but we are defending quite well against the hoofball we are now confronted with.  However, a pass goes astray in midfield and a big ball forward sends Richarlison is away but Bednarek recovers to put in a perfect tackle and knock the ball away.  Over goes Richarlison (which is not the problem) but the blood curdling scream he lets out is embarrassing.    Little fat twat Lee Mason, takes a while to give the decision because he hasn’t got any breath and it’s a free-kick to Everton – utter bullshit.  If it’s a free kick then it’s a red card but it goes to VAR and they decide that it’s not a red card.  More bullshit.  What’s happened here is that VAR has realised the Bednarek has got the ball so we end up with a half arsed outcome which is that Everton still get the free kick, Bednarek still gets the booking but they’ve  decided that he won’t get sent off because it’s not really a foul. Anyway, after all that, Gordon fucks up the free-kick and McCarthy has to make a comfortable safe from the follow-up shot by Sidibe.

Hojbjerg for Romeu and Long for Adams gives us a bit more energy and we have another spell of dominance at the end of the game and look like the only team interested in winning it.  The best opportunities fall to Redmond who tries a curler from the left which goes wide of the far post and to Armstrong who latches on to Long’s knockdown from Bertrand’s cross and blasts it well over.

And so we had to settle for a point which is a good point but at the end of the day, quite a frustrating one.  The brilliant football that we played in the first half should have been rewarded with us being out of sight at half-time but missed chances and giving away a dopey goal through lack of concentration, meant we went in level after one of the most one-sided first halves that I’ve ever witnessed. Make no mistake, our football in midfield and the movement upfront was absolutely brilliant in that first half. Ancelotti knew he could not compete with us in midfield so he decided to bypass it and then you had a club which has forked out about £350 million quid in transfer fees over the last few years and has one of the most expensive managers in the world, resorting to smashing the ball at the park to the two big strikers and seeing what they could pick up.

New Everton Hoof Merchandise

As said, the goal we let in was a lack of concentration and communication.  Richarlison did take the chance really well, which really sticks in my throat because he is a complete arsehole.  He’s also Everton’s best player by a mile.  Truth be told, we did target him and he did get kicked quite a few times but that is a direct result of the fact that he spends every game against us (and no doubt everyone else) diving around like he’s been shot by a sniper.

For us, Ings and Adams showed what a good partnership they could well be next season.  Ings was absolutely unplayble at times in that first half and Adams looked a completely different player to what he looked like at the start of the season. He had more energy, purpose and the confidence he took from the Manchester City game meant that his touch was good and it looked like he thought that he believed that he was good enough to be out there. There were also very good performances by Armstrong, JWP (penalty miss side) and In particular, KWP on the right hand side. Daniel Levy will be counting his money.  Some of our players did seem to be running on fumes little bit. In an ideal world, Armstrong and probably Bertrand could’ve been taken off for the last 20 minutes but by that stage, we only had kindergarten options on the bench so with the game being tight, it wasn’t going to happen.

Lee Mason has had better games as a referee – well I assume he has. Personally, I don’t think our penalty was a penalty and the other big talking point, the perfectly fair tackled by Bednarek on Richarlison, he got completely wrong. VAR was once again a complete shambles.  If all the VAR official is going to do is uphold the referee’s wrong decision, then what’s the point?

Today’s broadcaster was Amazon Prime but it had the usual suspects from the BBC working on the game. The neutral pundits they chose were Roberto Martinez, a former Everton manager and Kevin Campbell, a former Everton striker. The other team is always the big club when Saints are in town. Gabby Logan, who I usually like, became absolutely obsessed with Golden Boot and must’ve mentioned it 15 times in reference to Danny Ings. It really isn’t the be all and end all. Football, is a team game. She wasn’t alone however as Shearer mentioned it a few times during the game and of course, a certain 9-0 defeat came up a few times.  There will be a few more years of that to come.

In summary, I’m quite happy with a point at one of our graveyard grounds. We stood up well to Everton’s long ball barrage in the second half and at the start of the season, this is definitely a game that we would’ve lost.  These games are not so much about this season, as about preparation for the next and we are most certainly going in the right direction.  We played some great football and we defended well in the main against long ball tactics which is not something we’ve always done.

Next up is one of the form sides of the Premier League, in Manchester United who have been winning games comfortably without playing particularly scintillating football. We are beginning to look a bit threadbare on numbers but as long as we don’t have to pick too many of the inexperienced youngsters, we should be able to give them a good game. We certainly shouldn’t be scared of them after our recent performances.