The Blues travelled down the East Lancs Road for an away day that promised to be memorable. With United deep in disarray supporters had every reason to be optimistic of a good result. That was until John Moss decided to have his influence on proceedings however.
Marco Silva decided to stick with the starting eleven from last week by once again going with Richarlison up front through the centre, supported by Walcott, Bernard and Sigurdsson. That was a bold decision despite our recent run of victories, Cenk Tosun will certainly have had the right to feel disappointed being back on the bench after his late goal against Palace. Clearly the manager’s thinking was having pace and trickery in the final third could bring Everton success against United’s fragile and somewhat clumsy back-line.
Behind them was the ever reliable Gueye, who’s featured in all but one of our league games so far, partnered with the absolutely delicious Andres Gomes. The on-loan Barcelona midfielder impressed last weekend with his assured and silky display, he already looks a player Evertonians have taken into our hearts. Behind that was the same defensive four we’ve used in all three of league victories going into this game which meant Yerry Mina’s wait for his Everton debut goes on.
The only notable change in United’s line-up was the decision to drop one Romelu Lukaku. Everton’s former no.10, and record goal scorer in the Premier League era, has been going through a barren spell and in fact hasn’t scored for his new employers at Old Trafford since March. Clearly no one informed Jose Mourinho of Everton’s unchallengeable ability to gift goals to footballers who so desperately need them, especially when there’s ill-feeling between the player and us. Such a rookie mistake by a man who has a compulsion to constantly remind the world just how successful and brilliant he’s been throughout his managerial career. Alas, I digress.
The opening twenty minutes or so plodded along at a hard-fought pace, both sides managed half-decent efforts on goal and forced each other’s respective goalkeeper into action. United saw most of the ball, as you’d expect at Old Trafford, but Everton had a fair share of the possession too and made some quality passes in the final third to keep our opponents’ guards up.
The flash point came in minute twenty-six, the moment that split the two sides and created the main half-time talking point. United found Anthony Martial on the left who proceeded to break away and dribble his way into the penalty box. Gueye was the player in his way and made an attempt to win the ball. Win it he did, his entire foot made contact, but that didn’t stop the United man from bundling himself over the outstretched leg and going down in a hysterical heap. Referee Jon Moss without hesitation immediately gave the home side what they were after and pointed to the penalty spot.
Let’s have it right, the awarding of that penalty was a downright atrocious decision and made by an official who has a well-known history of affecting match outcomes with his poor judgements. A study back in 2016, printed by the Independant, found Moss was the most error-prone ref in the Premier League with an average of 1.69 score-altering mistakes per game. Yet he’s still being put charge of games in one of the most famous and competitive sports league in the world. Farcical.
The standard of officiating in this country has been rubbish for years now and only seems to be getting worse. The old guard clearly need turfing out and VAR obviously needs to come in. Things DO NOT even themselves out over the course of a season, whoever said that originally clearly doesn’t watch much top-level football.
Everton have numerous times now been on the end of some questionable at best, terrible at worst officiating at away grounds so far this season. Jagielka off in the first game at Wolves and Richarlison off in the second at Bournemouth. Arsenal allowed a grossly offside goal in the third and now this, a dive straight out of the swimming baths given as a penalty. When will this nonsense end for us? More in fact was yet to come.
United took the lead despite Pickford’s excellent save, Pogba the absolute fruit poking home a rebound but still showing himself up as the brainless, wannabe starlet that he is. His ridiculous stuttering run-up alone meant he did not deserved to see his kick hit the back of the net. Put that together with circumstances of which the penalty was awarded made it all the more bitter a pill to have to swallow.
Heads seem to go after falling behind whilst United grew in confidence as a result of their good fortune. Coleman in particular was having an a nightmare trying to deal with Martial down the right side, several times the Frenchman coasted past as if the Irishman wasn’t there. Rashford had close-range goal ruled out for offside but Everton were now all over the place and were mightily relieved when the half-time whistle came. The manager needed to calm the players down, get them to take stock and re-group for the second half. This wasn’t over.
Shortly after the re-start sadly it all in fact got worse for the Blues. United brought the ball into the final third, Pogba spotted Martial in acres of space down the left and the former Monaco man picked his spot with a curling a first-time finish into the bottom corner. It was more appalling defending down from our right side, Coleman and Walcott both left staring at another after seeing the ball hit the back of the net. Both had awful performances and not for the first time this season. There will be huge call now for the two of them to be dropped from the starting eleven and neither has any right to complain.
Let’s have it right, the awarding of that penalty was a downright atrocious decision and made by an official who has a well-known history of affecting match outcomes with his poor judgements. A study back in 2016, printed by the Independant, found Moss was the most error-prone ref in the Premier League with an average of 1.69 score-altering mistakes per game. Yet he’s still being put charge of games in one of the most famous and competitive sports league in the world. Farcical.
The standard of officiating in this country has been rubbish for years now and only seems to be getting worse. The old guard clearly need turfing out and VAR obviously needs to come in. Things DO NOT even themselves out over the course of a season, whoever said that originally clearly doesn’t watch much top-level football.
Everton have numerous times now been on the end of some questionable at best, terrible at worst officiating at away grounds so far this season. Jagielka off in the first game at Wolves and Richarlison off in the second at Bournemouth. Arsenal allowed a grossly offside goal in the third and now this, a dive straight out of the swimming baths given as a penalty. When will this nonsense end for us? More in fact was yet to come.
United took the lead despite Pickford’s excellent save, Pogba the absolute fruit poking home a rebound but still showing himself up as the brainless, wannabe starlet that he is. His ridiculous stuttering run-up alone meant he did not deserved to see his kick hit the back of the net. Put that together with circumstances of which the penalty was awarded made it all the more bitter a pill to have to swallow.
Heads seem to go after falling behind whilst United grew in confidence as a result of their good fortune. Coleman in particular was having an a nightmare trying to deal with Martial down the right side, several times the Frenchman coasted past as if the Irishman wasn’t there. Rashford had close-range goal ruled out for offside but Everton were now all over the place and were mightily relieved when the half-time whistle came. The manager needed to calm the players down, get them to take stock and re-group for the second half. This wasn’t over.
Shortly after the re-start sadly it all in fact got worse for the Blues. United brought the ball into the final third, Pogba spotted Martial in acres of space down the left and the former Monaco man picked his spot with a curling a first-time finish into the bottom corner. It was more appalling defending down from our right side, Coleman and Walcott both left staring at another after seeing the ball hit the back of the net. Both had awful performances and not for the first time this season. There will be huge call now for the two of them to be dropped from the starting eleven and neither has any right to complain.
Sigurdsson stepped up and showed United’s pampered baby how taking penalties is done by slotting his effort into the side of goal, a brilliantly taken kick. Immediately afterwards Marco Silva sent on reinforcements in the form of Tosun and Calvert-Lewin as Everton now chased a possible equaliser.
Alas, it was not to be. The Blues huffed and puffed but lacked the urgency required to pin United back in their own half for the final spell of the game. Despite plenty injury time a second goal never truly looked to be forthcoming, in fact we spent most of the last ten minutes defending rather than pushing forward. Only more Pickford heroics and Lukaku pooness (he was introduced just after the hour mark) kept the home side from adding a third.
The final whistle went and Everton were left with nothing but an official to loathe and a bad miss to rue. This trip to the Theatre of Dreams didn’t pan out the way many had hoped and predicted it might but things weren’t totally negative.
Marco Silva spoke well after the game, as he so often does, and told the world what it, and Evertonians, needed to here.
“It was a not a penalty, clearly the player dived and it leaves a bad sensation.
‘The referee made things easier for them. The penalty made a big impact in the match and I think all of you have the same opinion as me, we didn’t deserve that.
‘We came to try and win the match, not just to see and block them. That’s not our way. I think we played well in some moments of the game and until that moment, the penalty, it was a balanced game.
“You have to score when you create chances. If we’d have been more assertive here and against Arsenal away then we’d have achieved different results.”
This loss may have snapped Everton’s winning streak but there is no use in anyone being down or even overly angry. All that can be done is to quickly move on from this and focus on our next fixture instead which sees us host Brighton at Goodison Park.
Silva is clearly trying to instill a winning mentality in his players, a confidence that sees them go away to big and intimidating stadiums and just play their game instead of freezing up. That will of course take time to fully ingrain, diseases which have infected a club for two decades can’t be cured overnight.
We may have lost at the Emirates and Old Trafford under him so far this season but in neither game did Evertonians have to sit and watch as their team rolled over and accepted a beating. Even after falling behind we’ve continued to dig in, continued to create chances and never once looked frightened. That if you ask me is a massive sign of progress when you compare it to last year, when the Blues were spanked by two goals or more on no less than FOURTEEN different occasions.
We’re going in the right direction, or at least trying to steer ourselves that way, and right now is not the time for anyone to be pessimistic about things. The team and manager need us fully behind them as we head into the tricky winter period so heads up and chests out guys and gals, Everton are finally a team with a purpose and they need you fully behind them.
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