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Everton v Southampton: Blues claim first win of season

By Matt Townsend

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 18: Mario Lemina of Southampton and Gylfi Sigurdsson of Everton battle for the ball the Premier League match between Everton FC and Southampton FC at Goodison Park on August 18, 2018 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 18: Mario Lemina of Southampton and Gylfi Sigurdsson of Everton battle for the ball the Premier League match between Everton FC and Southampton FC at Goodison Park on August 18, 2018 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /
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Everton claimed their first win of the season with a 2-1 victory over Southampton at Goodison Park yesterday.

After an opening day draw at Wolves, Everton started their Premier League season at home with a well-deserved if narrow win over the Saints.

This was an important result for new manager Marco Silva enabling him to claim a victory in his first home game as Everton manager.

Although the Blues won the game it wasn’t quite as straightforward a victory as it could or should have been.

Everton’s first half was excellent and probably the best the team have produced in many a month. In particular Theo Walcott, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Richarlison were outstanding.

But Southampton had a few good chances themselves and Toffees’ keeper Jordan Pickford was having an inconsistent game, making some odd decisions and nearly conceding because of them but also pulling off several good saves.

The Blues though went into a two-goal lead courtesy of goals from Walcott and Richarlison and at half-time had a comfortable, and well deserved lead.

In the second half Saints continued to have half chances and eventually, as Everton went to sleep at the back, Danny Ings pulled one back for them.

These kinds of defensive lapses in concentration are a concern and something that Silva has to address. Hopefully the arrival of Yerry Mina and Kurt Zouma, who will surely feature soon, might help eradicate this problem.

Although they had a reasonable game overall neither Mason Holgate or Michael Keane are entirely convincing. There are still moments where they appear to lose concentration and it’s proving costly. It does look as though Mina is going to go straight into the side when he is fully fit.

However despite the setback of Ing’s goal, the Toffees still kept going forward and Walcott had the chance to add to his goals and finish the match netting with one effort that was disallowed and then having a glorious chance he spurned by shooting wide. While it seems almost churlish to be critical of him when he had a fine game, this kind of wasteful finishing is still an issue.

I think the arrival of Richarlison is contributing to Walcott’s effect on games. The Brazilian is creating so many problems for defences and this provides more space for Walcott to use his pace to get into threatening positions in front of goal. Hopefully, if he can stay injury-free, he will thrive this season.

Another real positive to come out of yesterday’s win was the performance of Sigurdsson. The Icelandic playmaker had a fine match creating opportunities while showing good movement and willingness to get forward into goal-scoring positions too.

Sigurdsson’s poor form last season was one of the most disappointing aspects of that campaign. The club’s record signing only started to find decent form late on and then suffered a season-ending injury against Brighton.

A fully fit and in-form Sigurdsson is almost like having another new player and he could prove to be a pivotal player for Everton’s season.

Richarlison also played well again and scored with a great header. The dynamic young Brazilian attacker is starting to look like he might prove a bargain at £50 million!

Certainly if he continues his current scoring form that fee, which many scoffed at recently, could well turn out to be a snip. The only possible downside is that his physicality means he often seems to need to come off early to avoid serious injury.

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Other positives included the form of the Blues full-backs Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman who were both excellent again as against Wolves last week.

Silva’s decision to give the captaincy to Coleman was a shrewd move and the hugely popular Irishman certainly didn’t let his manager down.

Baines form is a very welcome reminder of his continued quality and he seems to be revitalised by all the summer speculation, (including this site!), over his future. At the moment it’s difficult to see how his supposed replacement, Lucas Digne will get into the side.

Overall then a good win and a strong all-round performance from the Blues. It is certainly a positive and exciting start to the Silva era although it’s still early days. Next up Everton take on Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth.