Everton and Brighton played a 0-0 stalemate at the Amex Stadium
Everton dropped points once again, raising serious questions over the hopes of finishing in European places. The draw against Brighton now leaves Everton in 8th place with 49 points. The game lacked any sort of interesting and decisive moments as the Toffees only registered one shot on target over the course of 90 minutes. In its truest sense, this was a snoozefest not many people were prepared for but keeping in mind the team that Everton had to the lineup, the expectations had to be kept at a bare minimum.
Everton fans were left in shock and were stupefied by the lineup announced by Everton. A total of six traditional defenders started the game as the Toffees were without usual starters Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Allan meanwhile Joshua King was also not on the bench.
Carlo Ancelotti revealed DCL had an abductor problem in the final training session and didn’t feel comfortable. Allan was not 100% fit and was not risked. The Toffees had one of the youngest benches with the average age being 20.12 years. Ancelotti went with a back three of Michael Keane, Ben Godfrey and Yerry Mina. Mason Holgate featured in central midfield alongside Tom Davies.
Everton truly missed their No.9 Calvert-Lewin as the Toffees simply could not score or create any threat in the Seagulls’ final third. Everton couldn’t see a lot of ball either which ultimately restricted James Rodriguez and Sigurdsson from providing service to Richarlison.
Here are the Everton player ratings:
Robin Olsen – 6
Robin Olsen had a busy start to the game as Brighton got early corners. The Swede collided with the towering Yerry Mina giving a scare to the already depleted Everton side but had very little to do throughout the first 45 minutes.
Olsen made a big save from Lewis Dunk’s calmly guided header in the second half. In total, the Roma loanee made three saves but at no point was made uncomfortable by the Brighton attack.