Right then, I’m off. Here’s the league table:
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 26 | 36 | 62 |
| 2 | Man Utd | 26 | 21 | 50 |
| 3 | Leicester | 26 | 15 | 49 |
| 4 | West Ham | 26 | 9 | 45 |
| 5 | Chelsea | 26 | 16 | 44 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 26 | 13 | 43 |
| 7 | Everton | 25 | 5 | 43 |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur | 25 | 14 | 39 |
| 9 | Aston Villa | 24 | 12 | 39 |
| 10 | Arsenal | 26 | 7 | 37 |
| 11 | Leeds | 26 | -1 | 35 |
| 12 | Wolverhampton | 26 | -6 | 34 |
| 13 | Crystal Palace | 26 | -14 | 33 |
| 14 | Southampton | 26 | -13 | 30 |
| 15 | Burnley | 26 | -16 | 28 |
| 16 | Brighton | 26 | -7 | 26 |
| 17 | Newcastle | 26 | -17 | 26 |
| 18 | Fulham | 26 | -11 | 23 |
| 19 | West Brom | 26 | -35 | 17 |
| 20 | Sheff Utd | 26 | -28 | 11 |
And here’s the match report again. Bye!
Carlo Ancelotti is “really pleased, honestly”. He had to say so, because he looks like someone just vomited on his shoelaces.
It was a very good performance. I really appreciate the teamwork of the players. We were focused, defensively did really well, we had a good combination in front. I think the performance was good and we deserved to win. We have the luck that we have two fantastic strikers with different characteristics, and they are really effective in front. When you are 1-0 up, the last minute is always the same. The opponent team puts a lot of power in the last minutes and we have to control it. We controlled it well. They had practically only one opportunity, and they shot wide. Pickford was good in goal, really secure. I’m really pleased, honestly.
Andy Hunter was at Goodison Park for this one:
Ralph Hasenhüttl filled Goodison Park with a one-word swearword when Moussa Djenepo squandered a glorious chance to level late on for Southampton at Everton. It was a perfectly understandable response from the Southampton manager given both the quality of the opportunity and the seriousness of the predicament confronting his team.
Another defeat, this time courtesy of Richarlison’s early strike for Carlo Ancelotti’s team, made it eight defeats in nine league games for Hasenhüttl’s side. The seven-point gap between themselves and the relegation zone offers only limited comfort on a run such as this. Djenepo sidefooted wide with only Jordan Pickford to beat when Stuart Armstrong released the winger inside the Everton area with six minutes remaining. In stoppage time Jannik Vestergaard had another fine chance to level following a spot of pinball inside the home box. Pickford denied the defender at close range and Southampton’s hopes of taking only a second point from the last 27 available were over.
Much more here:
Ralph Hasenhuttl cuts a frustrated figure:
The goal is a long ball, we don’t defend it well. That’s it, I think, from Everton. They had a few chances from set pieces. We at the moment cannot score, that is the problem. We had chances today [but] the last pass, the will to win, to score, is not there at the moment. When I see the game, in the second half we tried a lot, we had a good second half. It’s not the same team that played in the first half of the season. The guys did OK in the second half, we tried to have a high energy level and to push back, but the goals are missing at the moment and without goals it’s tough to win games.
It’s fair to say that game didn’t live up to its early promise. There was not a lot created from open play, really nothing beyond the Richarlison goal and Djenepo’s second-half shot wide. If you were being very charitable you could include Adams’ first-half cross into Salisu, which could have deflected anywhere and was close enough to goal for an equaliser to have potentially resulted. So, to conclude one moment of convincing attacking quality, of a good pass, a good run and a good finish all coinciding. Sometimes that’s enough, of course, but I’m greedy.
There was only one shot on target in that match. For shame!
Final score: Everton 1-0 Southampton
90+6 mins: But still they can’t win a header, the ball is cleared, and the whistle sounds!
The first Premier League home win on Merseyside in 2021 has come in March.
— Richard Jolly (@RichJolly) March 1, 2021
90+6 mins: Armstrong lifts the ball into the box, Pickford comes for it but can’t collect, and Southampton have one last corner. Up comes Forster!
90+5 mins: They’re still playing...
90+3 mins: That Vestergaard miss, though. If the ball had fallen to Ings, this match would surely have been drawn. Instead it falls to the big defender, and to make matters worse he slips in the act of shooting.
Updated
90+3 mins: Djenepo, who has no reason to waste time, rolls around for a while clutching his left knee, until the referee finally stops play.
90+1 mins: King replaces Richarlison as the fourth official indicates that there will be three minutes or so of stoppages.
90 mins: Save! The corner is half cleared, but the ball falls to Djenepo, whose shot hits Holgate, and then another shot hits Holgate, and then finally it drops to Vestergaard, six yards out, whose shot hits Pickford!
Updated
90 mins: But not yet ...
90 mins: Another Southampton corner. By the law of averages they’re going to win a header soon.
88 mins: Watts replaces Redmond for Southampton, while for Everton Iwobi is on for Gomes.
87 mins: Richarlison pokes the ball through to Doucoure, whose run from midfield has gone unchecked, but instead of crossing with his left foot, or checking back onto his right and having a shot, he cuts back onto his right and crosses, straight into a defender.
84 mins: Southampton create a fantastic chance! Lovely interplay with Armstrong at its heart ends with Djenepo being played in on the right of the penalty area. He hits his shot and seems to run off in celebration for the fraction of a second it takes him to realise he has slapped it well wide.
82 mins: A good spell from Southampton, but their players always take a second touch when on a couple of occasions they would have been better off shooting or crossing sooner. Anyway, they have another corner.
79 mins: Digne goes down with a very loud scream, but the referee plays the advantage and Digne is up and running about again when the camera pans that way again. The referee has now waved a yellow card at someone, presumably whoever made that challenge.
77 mins: The night’s first booking goes, a bit harshly, to Armstrong, for bringing down Calvert-Lewin. Southampton take off the game but ineffective Adams, and bring on N’Lundulu.
75 mins: One thing Southampton are doing rather well at is winning corners. They’ve just had their sixth (I think), and for all Ward-Prowse’s set-piece excellence they are yet to win a header.
72 mins: Sky bring up the subject of Southampton’s goalscoring record in the second half of matches, which has been very poor of late. Across the entire season they lead 20-17 on first-half goals, but trail 11-26 after the break.
69 mins: From the free-kick Keane heads out to Tella, and then a defender comes out and kicks the ball into Tella, sending it spinning into the air and down at the feet of Ings, who astonished by this turn of events doesn’t shoot instantly, hesitates, falls over, and sends the ball rolling sadly to Pickford.
Updated
67 mins: Djenepo wins a free kick on Southampton’s right, and the match is becoming a bit set-piece dominated, though there can be no complaints about that award and Digne could very easily have been booked.
63 mins: That is Salisu’s final touch, with Tella coming on to replace him.
62 mins: Southampton win a corner, from which Salisu shoulders wide!
60 mins: Another Everton free-kick, another Keane header. Southampton are holding a very high line, though, from all these set pieces and as a result Keane’s header is from so far from goal that it’s basically unscoreable, and it’s anyway off target.
59 mins: Digne goes down in the penalty area, alleging a Ward-Prowse foul, but the referee didn’t spot one and slow-motion replays don’t reveal any either.
58 mins: Everton nearly score from the free-kick! It’s tossed into the area, where Keane heads it back across goal, and Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison are both waiting to meet it only for a defender to get there just ahead.
Updated
57 mins: Djenepo takes a strong touch, and Richarlison thinks he can win it from him. Both players commit to the ball, and Richarlison goes down hard and wins a free kick. Which is strange only because Djenepo won the ball.
54 mins: Everton win a corner, which is headed clear. Southampton have had one shot in total - that Redmond first-half volley - and none at all either on target or from inside the penalty area or created by their own work rather than just latching onto a defensive header.
51 mins: Salisu rises for another high-ball, is once again emphatically outjumped by Calvert-Lewin, and he again demands a free-kick for it. He doesn’t get one, but the referee stops play because he was pretending to have a head injury and it is restarted with a dropped ball and Southampton in possession, so it all worked out in the end.
48 mins: Sigurdsson’s shot deflects off the wall and over the bar.
47 mins: Calvert-Lewin collects a loose ball 15 yards inside Southampton’s half, spins and runs towards the penalty area, sprints into a posse of defenders and throws himself to the floor. I’ve got no idea if there was any genuine contact, but Everton have a free kick in a tasty spot.
46 mins: Peeeeeeeep!
The players are back out! And I have had a halftimely scoop of orange and almond choc chip ice cream, which was rather good.
Half time: Everton 1-0 Southampton
45+2 mins: Half of the time has been played. Now then, having now viewed the Adams/Godfrey incident twice I think it shouldn’t have been a penalty, but I also think it was similar in many ways to the incident involving David Luiz against Wolves last month, in which a defender accidentally brought down a forward sniffing a potentially excellent goalscoring chance, while not attempting to play the ball. On that occasion David Luiz conceded a penalty and was sent off.
45+1 mins: There will be approximately two minutes of stoppage time before the break.
43 mins: Ings chips a pass up towards Adams, who ends up on the ground in a heap also involving Godfrey. There are some penalty appeals, which neither the referee nor his video assistant is convinced by.
Updated
39 mins: Richarlisson released Sigurdsson down the right, and he picks out Calvert-Lewin with a pull-back, but the striker’s first-time effort hits a defender, and Sigurdsson was probably offside anyway.
36 mins: Another Everton free-kick from the right, another good delivery - this time from Sigurdsson - and this time there are four blue shirts, all onside, queuing up to convert. Richarlison would be better off leaving it for Calvert-Lewin but isn’t to know that, and flings out a leg to deflect it wide!
33 mins: Southampton are having a good spell. Redmond’s low centre from the left finds Ings and Djenepo unsure which of them should take control, and in the end the Malian defers, and Ings hits a shot on the turn into a defender.
“Twice offside from free-kicks, one costing a goal - am I alone in thinking that’s poor stuff from Everton?” wonders Gary Naylor. “It’s a dead ball and you’re looking right down the line. It’s not hard to wait that heartbeat longer before making the run.” The first I’ll forgive but the second was peculiar, in that Everton created a free-kick routine, involving mock confusion between Digne and Sigurdsson, especially to befuddle the defence and leave them uncertain when the cross was coming in, only for their own player, who knew exactly when the cross was coming in, to be befuddled.
Updated
30 mins: And another chance for Southampton! Good work from Djenepo on the right, and he passes infield to Adams, whose first-time spinning centre hits Salisu and deflects, a bit unluckily, into Pickford’s palms.
28 mins: Southampton win a free-kick, and Ward-Prowse’s delivery is excellent but Calvert-Lewin diving-heads it behind! “Was ‘A special correspondent’ code for the Guardian printing wire copy rather than sending their own reporters?” asks Graeme Thorn. Almost certainly not - old newspapers are full of such thing, generally written by bashful, publicity-shy (or ambitious, frustrated) but very much real journalists.
GOAL! Actually no! Everton denied a second!
A training-ground free-kick routine pays off handsomely, with Holgate heading Digne’s cross into the path of Keane, who turns it in, but Holgate was half a torso offside.
Updated
24 mins: Boggle-eyed protestations of innocence from Redmond after Holgate goes over his foot and wins a free kick, about 25 yards from goal.
22 mins: Ings anticipates Digne’s back-pass and comes that close to getting to it before Pickford! But then, in the end, he doesn’t.
20 mins: Andre Gomes tries a defence-splitting pass towards Calvert-Lewin, a lovely ball which the striker could have reached ahead of Forster if he hadn’t decided he was maybe slightly offside so taken a step in the wrong direction. Luckily he was, indeed, slightly offside.
17 mins: A decent cross from Ings on the right, but sadly Ings wasn’t in the penalty area to score from it. Keane concedes a corner, though, which is headed out to Redmond, whose volley goes over the bar.
15 mins: Save! Sigurdsson sends the ball in, and Richarlisson’s diving header was on its way towards the bottom corner before Forster got a big glove in the way, though the linesman’s flag kind of made it immaterial.
14 mins: I’m not sure Southampton’s self-esteem can survive an early goal. They’ve certainly looked poor in the few minutes since they conceded. Everton win a free-kick on the right for a Salisu high boot.
11 mins: Mohammed Salisu goes down after losing out to Calvert-Lewin in the header/shoulder double, but is soon back on his feet and in the fray.
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Southampton (Richarlison, 9 mins)
A lovely opening goal for the home side! Calvert-Lewin wins a head, and then wins the header (well, shoulder) from his header. The ball drops to Sigurdsson, who plays Richarlison through and the Brazilian goes past Forster and scores from an acute angle!
Updated
6 mins: Bertrand wins a corner for Southampton, but Calvert-Lewin heads clear.
4 mins: A bright opening from both sides. One wildly overhit Armstrong through-ball at one end, one offside flag against Calvert-Lewin at the other.
1 min: Peeeeeeeep! “Wow! Bolton Wanderers vs. Bangor City,” enthuses Sarah Rothwell. “Now there’s a fixture you don’t see every day.” It is a fixture that (so far as I can tell) has only once been seen in all of human history, in fact.
Z Cars rings out, and the teams make their way onto the Goodison Park pitch. Mason Holgate is holding an iPad across his chest like a soldier with a shield.
@Simon_Burnton I think I can't let it pass that back in 1971 Everton hosted Southampton a week after a momentous Derby win .. and won 8-0 (Royle 4, Ball 3, Johnson). It was 5-0 at HT.
— TheFlyingPasty (@ToffeeDan) March 1, 2021
This is true. Everton had beaten Liverpool 1-0 at home a week earlier. Here’s (a bit of) our match report:
Updated
Fraser Forster plays for just the second time this season. He currently has a 100% win record, his one previous game being January’s 1-0 win over Liverpool.
It’s 5C in Liverpool at the moment. Here’s Mason Holgate arriving at Goodison Park, as if it’s mid-July and he’s on the Croisette in Cannes:
The teams!
Here are tonight’s teams. The headlines: Ings IN! Calvert-Lewin IN! Allan IN! Forster IN!
Everton: Pickford, Godfrey, Keane, Holgate, Digne, Doucoure, Allan, Andre Gomes, Sigurdsson, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison. Subs: King, Iwobi, Nkounkou, Bernard, Virginia, Onyango, Broadhead, Astley, John.
Southampton: Forster, Salisu, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Djenepo, Armstrong, Ward-Prowse, Redmond, Adams, Ings. Subs: McCarthy, Stephens, Tella, Ramsay, N’Lundulu, Ferry, Jankewitz, Watts, Chauke.
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
⚠️ 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦! ⚠️
— Everton (@Everton) March 1, 2021
📋 Here’s your Everton team for #EVESOU... pic.twitter.com/9B7U7mccRe
🚨 T E A M S H E E T 🚨
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) March 1, 2021
The #SaintsFC side to take on #EFC tonight: pic.twitter.com/CIjc2puXQ8
Hello world!
Everton, whose last league win was against Liverpool a week ago, host Southampton, whose last league win was against Liverpool two months ago. The home side are not exactly in great form - their record over their last eight games is the 12th-best in the division - but Southampton’s is horrible, and in the same period they have one point, a goal difference of -19, and are rock bottom. “We are definitely sometimes a little bit too nice,” says Ralph Hasenhuttl (not if you ask referees: Southampton are joint third in the league on red cards with three, and 10th on bookings with 38). “It is hard to change this because this is our mentality, our character,” he added. “And the only problem is that you always get punished when you are nice or correct and sticking to the rules. Sometimes it is important to be a little bit nasty.” Let’s hope Everton have reinforced their shin pads.
In one respect at least these teams are perfectly matched: Everton might sit seventh but they have the Premier League’s 16th-best home record, with four wins in 13 games; Southampton are 14th but they have the league’s 16th-best away record. Something’s gotta give!
There’s plenty to look forward to here, I think. Welcome! Let’s share this footballing feast, shall we?
