Everton comeback strong in Goodison, after a string of poor showings. Sam’s men end things 3-1 over struggling, Crystal Palace.
After a slow first half from both sides, Everton managed to break the deadlock through Gylfi Sigurdsson’s, deflected shot and regained their stride.
Everton stole the three points thanks to goals from; Sigurdsson, Niasse, and Davies. Crystal palace managed to get one back, after a hand ball by Jonjoe Kenny, which resulted in a penalty conversion for Palace.
One of the main reasons Everton were able to win was because of the terrible defending. Palaces’ centre-backs left Everton’s strikers unmarked, which resulted in space – and lots of space. This space was then taken advantage of.
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An example of this came from Niasse, when he scored the second goal, he was given way too much space inside the small box. A centre-back should be tight on their man – especially in the penalty area.
It didn’t take long after for Everton to grab their last goal of the game – thanks to Tom Davies. Again, he was left unmarked and was given the space to get to the ball. Crystal Palace really miss Sakho.
There was no reaction from the London side’s backline, or rather their reaction time was slow, and that’s putting it mildly.
Everton 3-1 Crystal Palace match stats:
Everton | Stat | Crystal Palace |
| 3 | Goals | 1 |
| 53% | Possession | 47% |
| 76% | Pass Accuracy | 76% |
| 11 | Total Shots | 16 |
| 5 | Shots on Target | 4 |
| 417 | Total Passes | 369 |
| 8 | Corners | 7 |
| 16 | Tackles | 10 |
| 2 | Offsides | 1 |
| 14 | Fouls | 15 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
On the other hand, Everton did struggle to move the ball fluently and was reckless at times. They need to focus on their passing and a good place to start is with Sigurdsson. Working around a player of his quality gives you options.
I think that’s what they were trying to do with the Walcott signing. Which I could see working, but there’s still need for more balance between the left and right flanks. Rooney, disappointed me today as I expected him to be more present in the match.
You could see today the absence of Zaha, and Sakho really left Palace with an unstable team, which means they need to bring up suitable replacements, who fits their system. Obviously this is a problem with a lot of clubs, but relegation is a reality if they continue like this.