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Everton snatch the points from Wolves

By Matt Townsend

WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 12: Michael Keane and Alex Iwobi of Everton celebrate following their team's victory in the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton at Molineux on January 12, 2021 in Wolverhampton, England. Sporting stadiums around England remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 12: Michael Keane and Alex Iwobi of Everton celebrate following their team's victory in the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton at Molineux on January 12, 2021 in Wolverhampton, England. Sporting stadiums around England remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images) /
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After a resilient performance Everton grabbed all three points at Molinuex last night though a Micheal Keane second half winner.

This victory over Wolves lifted Everton back into the top four. Had the Toffees beaten West Ham on New Years Day, they’d now be second only a point behind Manchester United.

Still lets not be too greedy at least the Blues are back in the mix for a Champions League spot, which is obviously right where we’d want to be.

Going into this match it felt as though the game could be a difficult one for an Everton team that had been truly awful against West Ham and little better in the narrow FA Cup win over Rotherham on Saturday.

Boss Carlo Ancelotti picked a unexpected team with a front two of James Rodriguez and most surprisingly, Gylfi Sigurdsson. Strangely, having picked him in previous games, Ancelotti didn’t trust the obvious replacement for his England man, Cenk Tosun to start.

Ancelotti went with a 4-4-2 and reverted to the back four of Mason Holgate, Yerry Mina, Keane and Ben Godfrey that had been so strong and had secured four straight Premier League wins in December. Wolves equaliser in this match was the first this back four has conceded in open play.

The Everton manager also picked Lucas Digne to play in front of Godfrey on the left. This is something I had speculated he might consider as a way to get both players into the team, combining Godfrey’s pace and defensive excellence with Digne attacking qualities.

And the Frenchman’s creativity was on display again as he provided the ball from which Alex Iwobi scored the Toffees early opening goal. Iwobi had another good game and has really settled in at last it seems in this team.

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Everton had begun well and a neat exchange between Rodriguez, Digne and Iwobi saw the Nigerian shoot past Rui Patricio in the Wolves goal via a deflection off Connor Coady.

At this point the Blues looked like they might take control of the match but they didn’t capitalise on this early lead and Wolves got stronger. The home team then equalised after some neat attacking play.

The Toffees were missing both their first-choice forwards with Richarlison also not fit to start and it showed as Sigurdsson offered very little threat up front, unsurprisingly as he lacks the pace or movement to operate there.

Wolves are certainly a team that is easy on the eye as they play some lovely smooth attacking football but Everton too were knocking it around nicely as well.

Both teams though were missing their main goal-scoring threat as Wolves are still waiting for their key striker Raul Jiminez to return from injury.

In the second half the Toffees were less effective and the home team were largely dominant, but they didn’t really threaten that much being often restricted to shooting from distance against a Blues defence that was outstanding again.

As I’ve said before, I really think that Ancelotti needs to stick with this back four going forward as it’s providing a really solid base for the side as a whole. As the old maxim goes, if a team doesn’t concede goals they always give themselves a chance of winning matches.

The trick will be how to graft the creative flair of Rodriguez, Digne and potentially other new signings, onto that base.

Anyway back to the game and although Wolves looked the more likely to find a winner, it was the Blues who did so as Keane’s header late in the second half proved the difference with Everton holding on for the last quarter of hour.

So another excellent away win and a very valuable three points were gained. It puts the Toffees in a great position as the season enters it’s second half.