Everton beaten again but better
Well in the end it wasn’t unexpected as Everton were eventually defeated 1-3 by Manchester City last night. But despite the loss there were again signs of what the team can deliver.
Yesterday’s match at Goodison Park was to some extent a little bit of a free hit for Everton, as few Toffees fans or commentators would have expected victory over the reigning Premier League champions.
As I anticipated in my match preview, the Blues did perform much better against City at home, as they invariably have recently against top six sides.
After a slow start Everton improved considerably once they went one down though(!), and after equalising through Dominic Calvert-Lewin, they played some fine attacking football and created good further chances.
It was a very entertaining game for anyone watching. Several great opportunities were spurned by the home side before City almost inevitably found a way through and added two late goals to seal the win.
This sort of performance is though exactly what drives us Blues fans crazy. Playing perhaps the best footballing side in Europe, the Toffees more than matched them for periods of the game last night.
Contrast that with the insipid and underwhelming game just a week ago when Everton hosted Sheffield United and lost so timidly.
How are we to judge the players or indeed I suppose the manager’s qualities, if they keep on producing such incredibly inconsistent efforts?
While it is good to see Everton able to compete when they face the better teams in the Premier League, it is whether they can consistently beat the clubs around and below them, that will determine how far they can progress.
Putting away sides like Sheffield United is the key to the Blues making a concerted run at breaking into the top six or maybe even higher.
Looking at the individual performances from last night’s game, Marco Silva sprung a big surprise starting Theo Walcott, but he wasn’t on the pitch long enough to give any indication if that decision would have worked.
But again the team let in a goal that might have been avoided and struggled initially to respond. Ironically despite the concern about the Toffees defensive lapses at set plays, it was City that looked most vulnerable there as Everton put them under concerted pressure from that source.
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Everton’s forwards had a really good match as a group, after Walcott’s early exit, and certainly put City’s defence under plenty of pressure. Unfortunately however again the finishing was wasteful and costly.
As I thought, if you are able to get at them, City’s defenders are vulnerable, and so it proved yesterday as they were indebted to goalkeeper Ederson for keeping the Toffees out on a few occasions.
However for all that, Everton did lose again and are now languishing in the bottom half of the table. And the big question is can the Blues maintain this level of performance when they play a team that provides very different kind of test next; Burnley.