LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 04: Armando Broja of Everton shakes hands with team-mate Jack Harrison following the Premier League match between Everton FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC at Goodison Park on December 04, 2024 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
Armando Broja shakes hands with team-mate Jack Harrison after Everton's win over Wolves
As Armando Broja went around the pitch shaking hands at the end, his captain James Tarkowski stopped him with a hand to the chest. The conversation could not be heard over the final whistle rendition of Spirit of the Blues but the forward walked away smiling. It is not hard to guess the nature of his team-mate’s words.
Everton will have to start paying for the deadline day loan signing from Chelsea now he has overcome a troublesome Achilles injury. The way the 24-year-old started life in Royal Blue that may not be an issue. His 10-minute cameo saw him shrug off defenders, win lost causes and create a hat-trick of chances for fellow substitute Jack Harrison.
None of those opportunities were taken but it did not matter. It was that kind of night for Everton. One where everything went right.
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Almost everything, that is. Broja replaced Dominic Calvert-Lewin, whose struggles have been one of the reasons Sean Dyche has started to look toward the Albania international in his search for goals. Calvert-Lewin’s exit was greeted with a standing ovation that was deserved despite him ending this game goalless.
The forward has been isolated and bereft of service for months but against Wolverhampton Wanderers he was a menace, winning free-kicks in dangerous areas and causing the chaos in the box that helped his side to capitalise. He celebrated two of the goals in this 4-0 win but both were ultimately judged to be Craig Dawson own goals. Regardless, Dyche can leave Goodison Park with the hope that he has not one but two strikers who look to have discovered their menace.
He will also leave L4 with the weight of pressure on him having lifted, for now at least. This was a big win for Dyche at a time of growing scrutiny. By his own admission the Blues have not enjoyed a good start to the season and a club in paralysis as it awaits a change in ownership was in danger of collapsing into another survival fight. That is still a danger - this has still been a bad start to the campaign, Wolves missed a host of big chances and the fixture list is still a daunting one over the coming weeks.
But this win opened up a five-point gap to Wolves and the bottom three. It provided Dyche much-needed respite at the same time as it heaped further pressure on Gary O’Neil in the dugout next to him. As Everton supporters tasted victory, he was subjected to renditions of “sacked in the morning” and “you don’t know what you’re doing” by his own supporters.
For the home end this was a night to savour and that felt clear after Orel Mangala doubled the lead just before the break.
Ashley Young had already curled Everton into an early lead with a low free-kick but, scarred by comeback defeats across this disappointing start to the season, no-one in Royal Blue would deal in complacency despite the struggles of their lowly opposition. The fear was justified by what was happening on the pitch, as well as what had happened in the past, Jorgen Strand Larsen missing big chances when this was goalless and after Young’s strike.
That was why Goodison seethed with anger after Tarkowski's goal was controversially chalked off. Those scares in the early minutes and after the opening goal were warning signs of what could happen, so when he powered a header past Sa from a Dwight McNeil free-kick the relief reverberated around the ground until a long VAR check ended with referee Michael Salisbury deciding the offside Mangala had interfered with play. The resentment followed quickly - the old favourites of “f*** VAR” and “Premier League, corrupt as f***” ringing around Goodison.
When the loanee from Lyon overcame that disappointment by rifling in his first Everton goal amid the mess Wolves made of defending another set-piece, Goodison erupted into chants of “Everton” and all of a sudden it felt safe to watch the Blues again.
There was still time for another scare as Strand Larsen made it a hat-trick of glorious missed chances by failing to properly connect with a vicious ball across goal by Matt Doherty but for once things were falling the way of the Blues And, after weeks of failing to overcome adversity - even when it went for them, as was the case in the recent draw against Brentford - Everton had responded to the disallowed goal by simply seeking more.
They put this game to bed almost as quickly into the second half as Manchester United took that game from them on Sunday. Another McNeil set-piece caused panic in the Wolves box and sheepish celebrations around Calvert-Lewin followed what was eventually awarded as the first Dawson own goal.
Calvert-Lewin thought he had the goal his display deserved when he met another McNeil free-kick with a diving header but that too was diverted in by Dawson. His goals tally may not have been improved but he deserved the ovation that followed soon after for a performance that came as, through his replacement, a new threat to his position emerged.
Broja and Harrison were unable to add extra gloss to this result, while the excellent Iliman Ndiaye had his own goal ruled out, but this was a night Everton got just what they needed - including, somehow, a clean sheet as Strand Larsen missed his fourth big chance when his search for a consolation was thwarted by the post.
This was also a timely confidence boost for the Blues ahead of the final Goodison Park Merseyside league derby on Saturday. Everton produced a win for the ages under Dyche in that fixture last season. They did so partly through the threat they once posed from set-pieces - one that had disappeared this year. This was a good time, therefore, to score four - five if you count the disallowed Tarkowski header - from wicked balls into the box.
Everton will hope they have rediscovered the magic touch in front of goal, from set-pieces - and maybe even some luck - just at the right time.