Crystal Palace 2 Everton 3: Toffees claim win in final minutes
After a really topy turvy match Everton finally grabbed a late lead and held onto it to secure an excellent three points at Crystal Palace.
This was a really important win given that the Blues had failed to hold onto the lead they had gained very early on in their previous game against Brighton.
Strangly, this afternoon’s match followed a very similar path with Vitalii Mykolenko scoring very early on just as he had last weekend.
The Toffees kept that lead for a while and created some good further chances, before Palace found an equaliser via a penalty after Jarrad Branthwaite brought down Eberechi Eze who then slotted home from the spot.
Palace though they should have had another with Eze and Branthwaite again involved, but after a long delay the incident was not ajudged to be a foul and the Palace player was booked.
After going into halftime at 1-1, Everton restored their lead minutes after the re-start when Abdoulaye Doucoure scored after Mykolenlo had nearly scored again, to give the visitors another lead they probably on balance deserved.
However, once again the Blues couldn’t hold on again and after a frustrating mix-up between the defence and Jordan Pickford, Osuane Edouard poked the ball beyond the keeper to bring the Eagles level again.
It was at times a breathless contest and certainly entertaining for any neutral to watch (in direct contrast to what I had predicted in my match preview!).
As the game went on it looked as though Everton would be frustrated for the second week in a row and despite having led for long periods, might have to settle for only a point instead of three.
However, after responding this week to talk about his use of substitutions in games, Sean Dyche came up trumps as he brought on Idrissa Gueye who then having been put through by Doucoure, scored a third goal.
I doubt that was the reason why the manager made the change but who cares it worked and the Toffees had the lead once more.
This time they held on despite a late Palace free-kick and secured another fine win on the road to add to the victories at Brentford and West Ham United.
So, a very good Saturday afternoon for all Evertonians and their team pulls further away from the dreaded drop zone with a comforting eight point gap having opened up.
Now we have another international break before Everton resume their campaign with the visit of Manchester United on the 26th November.