Paul Brown had it spot on when he summarised things by saying that Everton’s ‘Dogs of War’ ultimately had more bark than bite this week.
An immediate 10-point deduction dished out in between the 3-2 win at Crystal Palace and this fixture had plunged the Blues into the Premier League’s relegation zone but in the face of adversity it was hoped that the ‘us against the world’ siege mentality it harnessed would ensure that Sean Dyche’s side could now harness the same kind of battling spirit demonstrated by the only other Premier League team to stay up having been on four points from 12 matches – the Everton side that Joe Royle inherited in November 1994.
The fanbase were certainly galvanised by off-the-pitch events and with the 1878s raising £40,000 for protest banners and cards – the latter of which were displayed almost universally from the home support before kick-off and then symbolically in the 10th minute – and a gargantuan ‘atmosphere’ march from The Brick to Goodison Park which forced County Road to be closed off and dwarfed any of the previous such walk-ups to the ground whether organised to cheer or jeer, earlier this year. However, for all their magnificent support, games – if not always points – are still won and lost on the pitch and the wind was cruelly taken out of the Blues’ sails by a wonder-goal from the visitors a mere three minutes into the contest.
In the end – even to the point of the fireworks outside Goodison – this in many ways felt like an eerily familiar repeat of the night when Everton were torn apart by another United in the shape of Newcastle. That was the moment that many Blues feared their time in the Premier League was up as despite their Herculean efforts, they could not prevent the team from losing.
Yet they still survived. That was April 27, it’s still not advent yet and for all they were well-beaten here, this remains an improving side in a division that looks weaker at the bottom.
Evertonians shouldn’t lose sight of that at what is obviously a difficult moment.
While Everton have been relatively free-flowing on their travels under Sean Dyche, their general ability to convert goalscoring opportunities at Goodison Park will remain under intense scrutiny after this latest home defeat.
After seven Premier League games at Goodison so far this season, the Blues have now lost five and this is the fourth of such fixtures that they’ve failed to find the net. Dyche has previously described those first four consecutive home losses as “unfathomable” in terms of the chances that his side squandered in those games and while this defeat might not have been so inexplicable, despite the emphatic final scoreline, they still had 22 shots to United’s nine and they matched their opponents for possession.
Having started from a low base, Everton continue to move on an upwards curve under this manager who has preached a mantra of the players having “the bliss to miss”, insisting he won’t chastise them if they get into goalscoring positions but fail to convert, but you get to the point where they have to take responsibility for their actions. Abdoulaye Doucoure – who has a career high six goal involvements against United (having scored three and assisted three) and Idrissa Gueye were a couple of the Blues’ goalscoring heroes last time out at Crystal Palace but they both failed to deliver at clutch moments here when the scoreline was still just 1-0 and an equaliser could have had Goodison rocking again.
The real quality players deliver at such crucial moments and that’s where Everton are still lacking when coming up against the Premier League’s elite like United who they have now beaten just twice in their last 20 meetings in all competitions.
Ashley Young was cited by Dyche as one of those wise old heads within the Everton camp to have shared the wisdom of his years in elite football when the Blues were hit by their 10-point bombshell but they could do with a bit more nous from the oldest player to have turned out for them this season when it comes to on-the-pitch matters.
While Everton fell victim to yet another inexplicable call from Premier League officials when Craig Pawson chose not to send off Ibrahima Konate in the Merseyside Derby, nobody was really grumbling about the referee’s early decision to give Young his marching orders for two yellow cards. It could have been a similar situation here when John Brooks performed a U-Turn over the penalty after Young challenged Anthony Martial but in the end, Dyche – like opposite number Jurgen Klopp at Anfield – ended up giving his own defender the hook anyway.
Young – a former team-mate of gaffer Dyche no less from his early days as a teenager at Watford – has proven a useful option for Everton this term but as someone in the autumn years of his career, perhaps the clock should now be ticking on him as a starter in every game as we approach the busy festive period. For all his promise and energy, particularly going forward, the manager seems to view Nathan Patterson as a work in progress but what was telling here was that club captain Seamus Coleman returned to the first team squad for the first time since the 2-2 draw at Leicester City on May 1 and it may prove an opportune moment to now restore the skipper to the side.
