Everton 2 Nottingham Forest 0: Blues bounce back from Chelsea debacle
This afternoon the Toffees defeated fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest in another huge game at the bottom of the Premier League table.
On a tense afternoon at Goodison Park Everton manged a second consecutive win at home following the victory over Burnley two weekend's ago that ended their thirteen match winless run.
And, they put behind them Monday evening's dreadful 6-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge as the Blues produced a battling performance much more in line with how they have played for most of the season.
Unsurprisingly, it was not a game for the purist, and the home team rode their luck as well with Forest having a couple of decent shouts for a penalty turned down and Jordan Pickford making a big save when it was still just 1-0.
The Toffees were though well worth the win and overall certainly deserved to come out on top in the match and get all three points.
In the end the long range strikes from Idrissa Gueye in the first half and Dwight McNeil in the second was enough to secure three more massively important points in the Blues battle to avoid the drop.
Once again Sean Dyche stuck to his guns and picked a predictable team playing in the 4-4-1-1 tactical formation that he has used almost exclusively all season long.
As predicted both Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin were fit enough to play today and Branthwaite in particular once again proved his vital worth to Everton.
He was strong and decisive and his return from that minor problem that saw him come off at Chelsea, has fortunately proved nothing serious.
In midfield Andre Gomes came in for a start alongside Gueye and he was excellent combining well with the player that he used to line up with so often during Gueye's first stint at Goodison Park.
And after the midfield had failed so badly on Monday night the Toffees engine room was much more effective today and helped Everton to largely control the match.
Apart from all this the only dampener on the day was seeing substitute striker Beto clash with Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White late on and have to be stretched off. We can only hope it is not too serious an injury.
This week continues with a game on Wednesday as Liverpool finally travel the mile or so to the Grand Old Lady for the postponed derby.
Then next weekend comes another big game as the Blues have a third consecutive home match with Brentford the visitors on Saturday evening. It could be a seven days that proves decisive.