Everton hit the road yet again this weekend, traveling to the AMEX Stadium to take on a Brighton side that the Toffees beat in the first-ever Premier League match at Hill Dickinson Stadium back in Matchweek 1.
But after a decent start to life on the new ground, Everton have found more fortune away from home in recent weeks. The early weeks are doing some heavy lifting, but still the Toffees have won more matches away from home (5 v 4) and drawn fewer times (3 v 4), while sharing four losses both home and away.
And so they entered into this afternoon's match against the Seagulls, one that opened in rather bizarre fashion when the lineup dropped. David Moyes had named all four of his senior center-backs in the starting XI, with Vitalii Mykolenko picking up a late knock to rule him out for the match.
It still functioned as a standard Moyes 4-2-3-1, with Jarrad Branthwaite and Jake O'Brien playing full-back, flanking James Tarkowski and Michael Keane. Strange, to be sure, especially considering Nathan Patterson and Seamus Coleman were both on the bench (but not, strangely, Adam Aznou).
The home side got off on the front foot, creating two chances inside the first three minutes through Pascal Gross and Danny Welbeck. They'd end the half, only one of which was on target, while Everton managed absolutely nothing. Frankly, with better finishing from the Seagulls, Everton would have been down by a few goals at halftime.
Everton's first shot came in the 52nd minute from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, but it wasn't on target. In fact, the Blues grew into the match early in the second half, as if the clean sheet from the first interval had invigorated them.
KDH had another opportunity in the 67th on a good pass from Thierno Barry, but it was well saved by Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. And then an excellent header from Tarkowski was saved off the line five minutes later.
Just a minute later, Gross opened the scoring for the home side, and Everton appeared to be in trouble of losing. The defending was rough from Keane on the pass, and O'Brien could step into Gross' path quickly enough.
Brighton scored again in the 83rd, but it was disallowed due to an offside call, but the home side were searching to add to the lead. Moyes responded with some subs, adding Charly Alcaraz, Tyler Dibling, and Tim Ireogbunam in the 80th minute, followed by Patterson and Beto 9 mintues later.
And then, in the 7th minute of stoppage time, James Garner whipped a ball into the box, which fell to O'Brien, now on the left side. He swung a volley toward goal, which was well saved by Verbruggen, but he couldn't corral it and Beto, on his birthday, knocked the rebound in to equalize and save a point for the Toffees.
After a VAR check, because of course, the goal was given, and the full-time whistle was blown. The point pops the Toffees up to 8th for the time being, barring the outcomes on Sunday and Monday, while Brighton remain in 13th.