Thanks for joining Daniel for the match today, even if the majority of the game was a bit rubbish.
Enjoy your evening. Start it with the match report:
A little bit from Hodgson: “Two goals in the 87th and 89th minute - the one in the 87th was the killer. It was a massive blow after defending well so long.
“They scored the goals and we didn’t.
“I asked them [the players] to make sure they gave us 100 per cent commitment and matched Everton.
“It was a good penalty save but he [Pickford] also made two outstanding saves in the first-half.”
Jamie Redknapp did not like the run-up from Milivojević nor the fact he hit it down the middle, saying he was in two minds, which is fair enough. The last time he went down the middle he missed against Manchester City last season. One thing is for sure: he has cost his side.
A little bit of reaction from a couple of the Everton lads.
Calvert-Lewin: “That’s what us lot off the bench are here to do.”
Pickford on the penalty: “He ran up, I thought he was going to whip it to the keeper’s left and I just left my leg there and it hit it. I think it was a game-changer.”
On training to save penalties: “I don’t do much, I don’t mind taking them but don’t spend much time on saving them.”
Will Unwin is going to take you through the reaction; just earlier today, we disagreed about the efficacy of penalties down the middle. I’ll leave him to talk you through that epochal little chinwag; thanks for your company and comments.
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I think a bigger Hodgson mistake was not picking a striker for Zaha to play off. He ended up having to break himself without the ability to pass to himself, and there was no long out ball.
“All three of Everton’s substitutes have combined to produce the winning goals,” emails Philip Reilly. “By way of contrast, Palace haven’t even made one. Draw your own conclusions.”
Tricky one. Thing is, Everton were desperate to win it, so tried to, while Palace were happy with the draw so were feart to make changes. I doubt there’ll be much introspection from Roy Hodgson on that one, because he just cite the missed penalty as reason and move on. And I don’t say that to be critical, necessarily; managers with doubts are rarely good things.
Full-time: Everton 2-0 Crystal Palace
Everton will love that; three wins in a row, and they go eighth, above Leicester, Man United and Wolves. Palace, though, will rue that missed penalty eve if, on the whole, they were the inferior side. They stay 14th in the table.
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90+3 min How did I even forget this one though? Shaaaaaaame.
@DanielHarris Favourite Bernard #evecry pic.twitter.com/Y93rmw7Z4U
— Mark Jelbert (@mjjmongoose) October 21, 2018
90+2 min Tosun gets the ball on the left and drills a low shot that ruffles the side-netting.
90+1 min What we’ve seen here is the benefit of a squad, and most particularly, attacking options in reserve. Silva’s first XI didn’t work, so he changed it, bringing on fresh and different players with points to prove, and before Palace adjusted, the game was up.
90 min Wickham gets his big chance, replacing McArthur.
GOAL! Everton 2-0 Crystal Palace (Tosun 89)
Well done Marco Silva! Palace push, and Pickford launches a clearance, Tosun catching Tomkins and thundering away. He pounds into the box on its right, and zetzes a low right-footer under Hennessey, through his legs, and into the corner. What a set of substitutions!
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GOAL! Everton 1-0 Crystal Palace (Calvert-Lewin)
Well done Marco Silva! Lookman takes possession on the left, comes inside, and picks a peach of a cross, picking out Calvert-Lewin in the mddle. Palace are ballwatching, but also have a new man to mark, and while Sakho and Tomkins ponder its philosophical implications, yerman heads back where it came from, jus hard enough to beat Hennessey, who gets an ‘and to it.
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86 min Lookman diddles Milivojevic, nipping out and in; obviously he’s fouled, and stays down when the ref tries to play advantage. The free-kick, curled over by Sigurdsson, is headed away, but Everton have the box ringfenced....
85 min Another Everton corner and another outswinger; Zouma and Keane are both up, the former gets there first, and manages to get right under the blighter, ramming a header over the bar.
84 min This is back to being not so good.
83 min Zaha, who is wandering all over, turns up in centrefield and wedges a pass over the top for Townsend, but it skips off the turf and escapes.
81 min “Please show our appreciation for Andre Gomes” and “Please show our appreciation for Theo Walcott” - oh how that reeks of the people’s club. Calvert-Lewin and Lookman replace them.
80 min Everton win another corner, and again it’s swung out by Digne. It’s cleared easily, and Coleman has to foul Zaha on halfway to eliminate the counter. He’s booked.
78 min “I disagree with you,” says Caleb Jones. “The penalty is to reward positive play and to defeat cynicism. If that happened Italy would win every World Cup! I would agree with a smaller box though perhaps something that only goes 12 yards out.”
The problem isn’t so much the distance out but wide. And anyway, a direct free-kick in the box is a fair punishment for a foul; a near-certain goal, when nothing like a goal looked likely, is not. We want to encourage tackling, not discourage it.
75 min Townsend goes down the right and Tomkins is down after colliding with McArthur ... he crosses dangerously anyway ... and Keane doesn’t know what to do, so pokes at it and Pickford collects. That’s just not a backpass, and then the ref stops it for Tomkins to get treatment, fine as it’s a head injury, but his very own team-mate wasn’t bothered to.
74 min Nice from Palace, Van Aanholt and Schlupp combining, but they’re eventually crowded out and Everton counter with Walcott. Eventually the ball ends up with Gomes, who comes inside and telegraphs a low left-footed curler that’s just past the post.
72 min Everton’s head of steam has evapor8ted. They’re still pressing, but without the same conviction, and when Zouma slides a nice pass out to Digne, he crosses because he can’t think of anything else to do, and Hennessey collects.
70 min Richarlison, who is now on the left, finds Digne and his low, driven cross - that sounds like a Yosemite Sam insult, you low, driven varmint - is blocked behind by Wan-Bissaka. The corner is directed at Keane, but the balls slides off his forehead and flies wide.
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68 min A little burst from Palace, Zaha doing his best to wriggle space before Schlupp finds Townsend; he stands up a cross that Pickford catches under the bar.
66 min Change for Everton: Tosun replaces Bernard. My guess is that’ll mean 4-4-2, though perhaps Richarlison will go out to the left.
65 min “If I made you a roast you would know you’d been roasted,” coos Ian Copestake. I did not know he was a ftbllr.
63 min Richarlison sets Bernard away down the left when Kouyate loses it, and with McArthur out of position, he has bare space. But with all sorts going on the middle, he can’t decide what to do so does nothing but run out of pitch.
63 min This is alright now! Tomkins puts an arm on Richrlison as a cross comes in, and the ref sees nowt!
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62 min What a miss! What a save! Walcott finds himself at inside-right and a gap opens up so he zips through it, looking to draw Hennessey before shooting into him!
61 min Also: that was a seenumgivn pen, but really, the law needs to change. If someone’s going to score anywhere on the pitch, penalty; if not, direct free-kick.
PICKFORD SAVES FROM MILIVOJEVIC!
Why would you ever hit a penalty down the middle? Milivojevic goes to curl that way, but Pickford saves with his trailing leg!
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59 min PENALTY TO PALACE!
Zaha runs at Coleman, goes to the line, nips back inside, and Coleman gets the ball but catches Zaha with his trailing leg...
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58 min Wan-Bissaka does really well down the right, skinning Digne and crossing. Schlupp might shoot but his touch lets him down, then Townsend might shoot but opts to cross instead. Nothing comes of it.
56 min It’s all Everton now, and when Palace try to break through Zaha, Richarlison hunts him down and off Everton go again.
55 min Everton win a free-kick down the left, 30 yards out - surely this will be swung in. But no, it’s Digne not Sigurdsson, and though it causes minor panic anyway, Palace see it away - though not very far.
54 min Everton are coming. First, Gomes is teed up on the edge and his shmice is blocked, then Digne drives low and Richarlison then Sakho deflect it behind. The corner comes to nothing but Everton keep Palace pinned and go again...
53 min That’s more like it, Gomes sliding a luscious reverse pass for the lesseer-spotted Walcott, down the left of the box. He pirouettes on the ball, looking to stand up a cross, but Hennessey is there.
51 min Richarlison skirts around Zaha, steps on it and beats Milivojevic ... oops no he doesn’t! Yerman stays grounded and trips him with his body, for a richly-deserved yellow card.
50 min Sigurdsson swings out and Keane is there, but can’t get over the ball. I’ve no idea why Everton don’t swing one in and see what happens, because Palace are big, and the outswinger requires a much firmer header.
49 min Everton are pushing a bit harder now, Coleman attacking Schlupp, and when the defender comes back at him, he hangs in there long enough to win the corner.
47 min Nice from Bernard, who gets a yard on Wan-Bissaka and makes an angle for Digne; Wan-Bissaka recovers to block the cross behind as Bernard clatters into the hoardings. The corner comes to nowt because some bright spark fouls Sakho as the ball comes in.
46 min Nice from Zouma, pinging a long, er, diag to Walcott. He knocks back to Coleman but fails to spin in behind, so when the ball arrives in that zone, it’s to no one.
46 min D-I-S-C-O.
The players are back with us. Well Everton’s anyway, who are doing running drills as Ben E. King - any relation to Scott E. Parker? - croons over the tannoy.
As it goes, Palace could also use a centre-forward.
I’ve just been for some Malteasers - surely the greatest of them all - and decided that Marco Silva needs to bring on Calvert-Lewin and go 4-4-2. You’re welcome.
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Ma’dvice: save the below for the second half.
A missed penalty and a sending off but no goals between Birmingham and Chelsea earlier.
During the break, why not read Andy Hunter’s interview with Rochdale’s Joe Thompson?
Half-time: Everton 0-0 Crystal Palace
Honestly, if you’re not watching, that wasn’t anywhere near as thrilling as you think it was. Palace came closest to scoring with Kouyate’s header which hit the bar, but there’s been little excitement and even less good football. I’ll be back in 15, don’t you dare go away!
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45+1 min Everton break with Bernard, but when he finds Richarlison, 68 defenders immediately surround him and that’s that.
45 min There’ll be one added minute.
45 min Sigurdsson is going his best and moves across the box to fire and outswinger which rushes just past the far post.
45 min I’m not saying this is bad, but it’s definitely the opposite of good and good-1
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44 min After a good 15 minutes for Palace, Everton are reasserting themselves.
42 min Everton win a corner down the left which Digne swings out, finding Richarlison just outside the line of the near post. He jumps well, but can only head over the top. Decent effort, but.
42 min Sigurdsson curls into a spam in the wall. All in all, it’s just another spam in the wall.
41 min Richarlison ambushes Schlupp and races across the face of the box, so Kouyate shoves him over, playground-style. Free-kick Everton, 25 yards out, just left of centre...
39 min Maybe Everton should move Andre Silva further forward, because he’s not affecting the game where he is. Anyway, Townsend shrugs Coleman off the ball and crosses for Zaha, who leaps to no avail.
38 min Palace are on top at the moment; Everton can’t get anything going in midfield.
36 min Kouyate hits the bar! Townsend curls the corner in and Timkins pulls away to the back post, no one arsed to go with him. He nods back across, and there’s Kouyate in the middle, crumping a header against the woodwork, which bounces down in front of the line.
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35 min Milivojevic curls over the wall, but with enough whip and dip so that the ball bounces right in front of Pickford ... he shovels behind.
35 min McArthur darts a pass into Townsend, so Zouma ploughs through him because he can’t help himself. Free-kick Palace, 30 yards out...
34 min Nice from Everton, attacking down the right and moving the ball inside with three quick passes, the final of them teeing up Sigurdsson outside the box. He shanks somewhere towards Warrington.
33 min Meanwhile, Palace advance down the left and Schlupps cross is decent for Tomkins ... who’s distracted by a team-mate in the road, I didn’t see whom, so plops his header at Pickford.
32 min “Basing a Sunday afternoon’s sustenance around this game is like being served a Sunday roast with only sliced carrots on the plate,” reckons Ian Copestake.
If you don’t mind me saying, I’m saying that a roast is the most overrated meal. Tasteless and bland.
30 min Another foul on Zaha, this time by Coleman, gives Palace a free-kick on the right, 30 yards from goal. Milivojevic curls in a delicate one, but it doesn’t drop to an attacker and that’s the end of that.
29 min Zaha gets away from Gueye ... no he doesn’t. Gueye is booked.
28 min Something! Sigurdsson gets the ball in Sigurdsson territoryTM, and with Schlupp schluffing, turns and feeds in Coleman. He takes a stride, pulls back, and there’s Sigurdsson at the near post, cracking a shot that Hennessey saves. Decent play, though the ball was slightly behind him; the corner comes to nowt.
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26 min Schlupp gets to the line and lays back for Zaha, who can’t manufacture anything of note. Talking of which, is Villanelle the greatest television villain of the last five years?
24 min Digne shmices one into Richarlison, who jumps ... and so does Tomkins, all the way through him. The ball was there to be won, reckons the ref; am I still alive, wonders Richarlison.
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23 min McArthur charges through the middle and slides left to Schlupp, who can’t get his body around the ball and send it back into the middle.
22 min Sky are apologising for the swearing. But not the far more offensive football.
22 min This is not such a good game.
20 min Wan-Bissaka eases forward and looks to release Zaha; Zouma sees him away. But then Zouma dallies in possession, overruns the ball, and Coleman has to dash towards the penalty spot to hoof clear.
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18 min Palace win a free-kick in centrefield and hump it towards Kouyate, whose knockdown is too strong for McArthur.
17 min Everton clearly don’t think Palace can even do the basics, because Pickford is wellying long, straight balls whenever possible. And on the face of things so far, they might be right, because we’ve just seen another cause consternation before being cleared.
15 min Palace get down the right and whack in a couple of crosses, so Everton clear them. Tomkins then gives it away, but Richarlison can’t find Walcott.
13 min Milivojevic dithers in midfield, thinking of beaches, and clown fish, and furry tumble dryers. So Gueye powers through him, finding Richarlison who assesses the passes available to him, left and right, before deliberately running into a blind alley. that really fooled them!
11 min Pickford humps downfield and Richarlison puts himself between Tomkins and it before falling over. He and the crowd want a free-kick, but the ref is having no such thing.
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10 min Again Bernard slides in off the left, looking to flick Digne’s pass to himself, botching it, and proceeding anyway. He squares tp Coleman who contemplates a first-time howitzer into the top corner before taking a touch and poking acres over the bar.
9 min Nice link-up between Bernard and Digne, who wins a corner off McArthur; he takes the corner himself, and drills it to the defender at the front post. That should, in my not very humble opinion, earn a fine - a noogie or somesuch - because there’s no excuse for such wastefulness.
8 min We’ve not seen a whole lot of anything so far. Palace are looking to find the space between centre-back and full-back - the channels - and Everton haven’t really got going yet.
6 min “Best Bernard?” @il_cagnaccio asks him or herself...
4 min “Just need to desperately clarify,” beseeches Agnello Figueiredo. “Is it ‘an hero’ or ‘a hero’?”
It depends, I suppose. I was joking in using “an”, but my general rule is if in, correct pronunciation, you drop the “h” it’s “an”, but otherwise not. Problem being, if you don’t drop the “h” of “hero”, what does that say about your politics?
3 min Bernard floats in off the left and should shoot, but instead tries a backheel to Digne with predictable results.
2 min Richarlison flies in front of Sahko looking for a header he’s never winning and leaving forearm across face. Sakho is less than gruntled, but the ref offers no punishment beyond a free-kick.
2 min Palace push and Schlupp flies in on Coleman, trimming legs and tickling ball. Free-kick; lovely stuff.
1 min Techno techno techno techno!
@DanielHarris This guy #EVECRY pic.twitter.com/jUAPxrUlZ7
— Ese Agboaye (@A96oaye) October 21, 2018
Email! “I reckon Sigurdsson has 15 goals a season in him as a Number 10,” reckons Gary Naylor. “Free-kicks, er... penalties, and finding space in the edge of the box to pass it into the corners. Pace ahead of him is the key.”
Agree on the final point, but what’s possibly lacking is someone for him to cross to when he goes wide and someone to take defenders out of the road when he’s “in and around the box”.
Here they come!
The players are tunnelled.
Runner-up:
So then, the question on everybody’s lips: who is your favourite Bernard? Mine:
Hodgson is asked how important this match is. He thinks it’s really important.
Roy Hodgson says that it took util Friday for Zaha to prove his fitness - he had a private session then, got through another yesterday, and here we are. He notes that Connor Wickham is back - he’s been out since 2016, so it’s great to see him - and given Benteke’s travails, has a proper shot at cementing a first-team spot in the coming weeks.
Looking again at the Palace team, my guess is that they’re looking to keep it tight and nick something. They could’ve played Townsend in midfield and included another striker, but Roy Hodgson chose not to, and more than that, they just don’t have the midfield to see a whole lot of the ball. Most likely, they’ll try to get it forward quickly and defend deep otherwise.
James Redknapp reckons Richarlison might make a centre-forward as he’s got good pace and strength and is a good finisher. I guess there’s that, but in this formation, he’ll need to rattle them home because Sigurdsson and the wide players aren’t going to contribute that many.
Marco Silva says that Andre Silva can give his team “different things”, though doesn’t specify what they are. He thinks that things are moving in the right direction.
I should addd that Yerry Mina is now fit, but has not dislodged the immaculate Michael Keane as yet.
“How important is it that Everton have all their players at full fitness?”
“It’s key”.
More Super-duper Sunday insight as I get it.
Looking at both of these teams, it’s not immediately obvious who’ll get their goals. I think we’ll see goals this afternoon, but it’s rare for a team to improve as much as these will want to without a reliable scorer.
It’ll be interesting to see how Gomes gets on in English football. I’m not sure in front of the back four is the right place for him - nearer the opposition box makes more sense for a player Gary Neville compared to Frank Lampard. But he should have the nous to make a go of it where he is, and industry of Gueye should give him scope to get forward.
So, what does it all mean? The headline news for Everton is that Andre Gomes is fit enough to make his debut, now fully recovered from his pre-season hamstring-tickle. Tom Davies drops out, and so does skillz’s Jonjoe Kenny, replaced by Seamus Coleman.
For Palace, Zaha is fit, and all the rest is commentary as the late, great Rabbi Akiva once said, but Cheikhou Kouyate comes in for Jordan Ayew, so Andros Townsend moves up front.
Teams!
Everton (a fallible 4-2-3-1): Pickford; Coleman, Keane, Zouma, Digne; Gueye, Gomes; Walcott, Sigurdsson, Bernard; Richarlison. Subs: Baines, Mina, Tosun, Stekelenburg, Davies, Calvert-Lewin, Lookman.
Crystal Palace (a sophisticate’s 4-4-2): Hennessey; Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, Van Aanholt; McArthur, Milivojevic, Kouyate, Schlupp; Townsend, Zaha. Subs: Ayew, Wickham, Kaikai, Gauita, Kelly, Puncheon, Riedewald.
Poor man, poor man, poor man: Anthony Taylor (Wythenshawe)
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Preamble
One of the reasons we like football is because, unlike the daily mundanity of being us, we’re not quite sure what’s going to happen. However: then you have Everton.
They could quite conceivably batter Palace this afternoon, just as they could quite conceivably be battered by Palace this afternoon, just as they could quite conceivably perpetrate everything in between. And it’s been like this for 30 years; as Juice Terry taught, variety is the spice ay life, but what when all you get is variety? Is it still variety then? Riddle me that, clever-clogs.
Their latest attempt at reinvention is still in its embryonic stages, but there are signs of something. Richarlison looks a wise purchase even at the price, Gylfi Sigurdsson is doing what he was signed to do, and Theo Walcott has added thrust. They’ve no business whatsoever being 11th in the table, and will see Palace at home as a fair way to remedy that.
Palace, though, have more than enough to give them grief. Aaron Wan-Bissaka has the ability to go to the top and on the other flank, Patrick van Aanholt is also not to be messed with. In midfield, they have legs and pace – though perhaps not enough craft – and then across the front line can be found Wilfried Zaha, a flashing, skating, spinning disco ball of a footballer able to make the difference in any game. This one shOuld be decent.
Kick-off: 4pm GMT
