Everton 1 Manchester United 0: Toffees grab three vital points

After a profoundly demoralising 3-2 defeat at Burnley on Wednesday night, Everton held on for three hugely important points this afternoon against Manchester United.

This one nil win was massive and absolutely crucial for Everton to stop the rot after two away-day losses in the last week to West Ham and then the Clarets, which pushed the club even closer to the relegation zone.

I wrote in the match preview to the Burnley match that the result, while not decisive, could prove critical to the momentum for the rest of the season.

It was a game I didn’t think the Blues’ could afford to lose as that would prove potentially significant to the psychological self-belief as Burnley would close the gap between the teams to just one point. That is exactly what happened on Wednesday.

So, going into today’s early kick-off at Goodison Park Everton had to find a way to immediately bounce back and get past the huge deflation that came from the Clarets result.

As most Evertonians realise, in truth, survival will almost certainly hinge on their home form and today again that home form came to the rescue.

This was certainly not a vintage performance compared to some seen at the Grand Old Lady over the years for sure, but the win was all that mattered.

Frank Lampard picked a team that included very rarely seen midfielder Fabian Delph from the kick-off for the first time since he became manager. He joined the returning Allan in the centre of the pitch with Abdoulaye Doucoure on the bench.

That is a decision I certainly wouldn’t have expected earlier in the season but Doucoure’s form recently has been dismal.

The home team were the better side thoughout the match with several players outstanding such as Vitalii Mykolenko, Alex Iwobi again and Richarlison who wore his heart on his sleeve, although United had the majority of possession and actually more attempts on goal overall.

Another player who stood out for Everton again was Anthony Gordon. The academy graduate is fast becoming a genuinely oustanding Premier League player.

The one thing that he hasn’t yet added enough to his game is scoring goals. Today it was Gordon who netted what proved to be the winning goal after his deflected strike in the 27th minute.

United were surprsingly uninterested at times and didn’t ever really consistently threaten after the first preiod, although they did force a couple of good saves from Jordan Pickford especially from Ronaldo late on.

But, despite a wobbly few closing minutes to the match the Toffees’ held on and secured that crucial win at last.