Prince Rupert's Tower
Fansided

Everton edge Blades to go second

By Matt Townsend

SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 26: Gylfi Sigurdsson of Everton celebrates with teammates Ben Godfrey, Seamus Coleman, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Alex Iwobi after scoring his team's first goal during the Premier League match between Sheffield United and Everton at Bramall Lane on December 26, 2020 in Sheffield, England. The match will be played without fans, behind closed doors as a Covid-19 precaution. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 26: Gylfi Sigurdsson of Everton celebrates with teammates Ben Godfrey, Seamus Coleman, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Alex Iwobi after scoring his team's first goal during the Premier League match between Sheffield United and Everton at Bramall Lane on December 26, 2020 in Sheffield, England. The match will be played without fans, behind closed doors as a Covid-19 precaution. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images) /
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The Blues rebounded from the disappointment of Carabao Cup defeat to Manchester United on Wednesday as Everton edged past Sheffield United 1-0 at Brammall Lane tonight.

This win propelled Everton back up to second in the table and was the Toffees fourth straight Premier League win, matching the run they opened the season with.

Coming into tonight’s match the Blues were missing both South American forwards James Rodriguez and Richarlison and inevitably it showed in the lack of flair on display.

Boss Carlo Ancelotti decided to give young Anthony Gordon a start on the left of a midfield in place of the Brazilian while Alex Iwobi continued on the right hand side.

Essentially Everton played in a loose 4-5-1 formation with Gylfi Sigurdsson playing as the link between the midfield and lone striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

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Inevitably given the number of matches teams are playing at the moment, the poor quality of the opposition and injuries to so many key Blues players, it was never going to be a classic.

The weather didn’t help with strong winds and heavy rain lashing the steel city.

The Toffees started slowly and in a first half of precious few chances they were sluggish and couldn’t really put any decent football together. ‘

Their opponents were equally poor, although they always worked hard, but there was plenty of evidence for why they are rooted to the bottom of the league as they struggled to create much.

Everton got better as the match went on and gradually began to get more control but chances at either end were few and far between.

The Blues had the best of the earlier chances with Calvert-Lewin volleying just wide and Sigurdsson also going close being perhaps the best of them.

A low-key first half however ended goalless. The second half was no different really and again neither team looked very likely to break the deadlock.

With the game drifting towards a 0-0 draw and ten minutes remaining Everton finally scored. A nice move saw Abdoulaye Doucoure tee up Sigurdsson who finished calmly with a low shot into the bottom corner of the United goal.

The Blades pressed late for an equaliser that never looked realistic but the Toffees held on comfortably enough.

This outcome was important to restore good momentum and the end result was much more important than the performance as is to be expected with all these games.

So crucially three more points bagged and the Blues cement their place in the to four going into the new year. The games keep coming thick and fast though and next they host Manchester City at Goodison Park in just 48 hours time.