Everton win 1-0 against Southampton at Goodison Park to move to 43 points in 25 games.
Everton held onto a 1-0 advantage for over 80 minutes to ensure the side’s first home win since December 19 in the league. Richarlison produced a spectacular goal in the 9th minute after which the Toffees worked extremely hard to maintain the lead. There wasn’t much on offer on the attacking front which will worry Ancelotti going forward but it was yet another astute display from the defence.
Carlo Ancelotti named a strong starting lineup, bringing Allan and Dominic Calvert-Lewin back to the starting lineup. Gylfi Sigurdsson came in for James Rodriguez which meant a total of three changes from the side that historically won at Anfield a week ago.
What was surprising to many was the bench that the Italian named with Nathan Broadhead, Tyler Onyango, Ryan Astley and Kyle John among the mix of Alex Iwobi, Bernard, Joshua King, Niels Nkounkou and Joao Virginia.
Ancelotti decided to rest the likes of Tom Davies, James Rodriguez, Robin Olsen and Seamus Coleman as they had minor problems during training and he decided not to risk them with a hectic run of games ahead.
Everton were deployed in a 4-1-2-1-2 midfield diamond with Sigurdsson playing behind the strikers. The idea of naming a midfield heavy side was to win the battle in the middle of the park and try to outnumber the midfield pivot of James Ward-Prowse and Stuart Armstrong. Here are the Everton player ratings:
Jordan Pickford – 7
Jordan Pickford hardly had anything to do in the first half as he largely remained untested by the Saints attack, not forcing him into any real saves. For much of the second half, Southampton didn’t work him until an attempt from Vestergaard in the dying stages of the game forced him to pull off a very important save.