Five years ago today, Everton defeated Brighton & Hove Albion 4-2 to go top of the Premier League
Yerry Mina celebrates with Lucas Digne, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Abdoulaye Doucoure and James Rodriguez during the match between Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion at Goodison Park on October 3, 2020
Yerry Mina celebrates with Lucas Digne, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Abdoulaye Doucoure and James Rodriguez during the match between Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion at Goodison Park on October 3, 2020
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Today in 2020, Everton moved to the top of the Premier League with a 4-2 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion. But most of the games that season being played behind closed doors because of the global pandemic and no fans to witness the action, in many ways some five years on it all feels like something of a coronavirus-induced dream.
Not only did the result ensure the Blues had matched their title winners of 1969/70 by triumphing in their first four top-flight fixtures of a season, but it matched their best start in all competitions for 126 years since the boys of 1894/95 began with seven successes on the trot.
For the record, that Victorian vintage of Everton would extend the sequence to eight by defeating Liverpool 3-0 at Goodison Park on October 13 in what was the first ever Merseyside derby in the league.
Managed by Carlo Ancelotti, the most decorated coach in European football, the Blue boys of 2020 had Dominic Calvert-Lewin in fine form. In netting the opener against the Seagulls, he took his tally for the fledgling campaign to nine goals, a figure he would fail to match in any of his subsequent four seasons with the club, and he’d ultimately finish on a career high 21 in all competitions that term.
Despite future Everton player Neal Maupay equalising for Graham Potter’s side in the 41st minute – matching the total for his next employers over 32 games – the hosts were back in front in first-half stoppage time when Yerry Mina headed in from a free-kick delivered by fellow Colombian international James Rodriguez.
After the break, the 2014 World Cup Golden Boot winner went from creator to finisher as he took control with a brace of back-post finishes – the second on his weaker right foot – before a spectacular long range consolation strike by Yves Bissouma proved too little, too late for the Sussex outfit in stoppage time.
Ancelotti said: “We managed the situation of the game well. We had composure defensively and had opportunities on the counter attack. The performance was complete and this was the reason we deserved to win.”
On James Rodriguez, who had played under him previously at both Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, the Italian said: “As I said on the first day, the players with quality have not a problem with that (settling in).
“The quality is there because football is not so complicated.
“The pitch is always the same, the opponents are always 11, the ball is the same, the goal doesn’t move. Football is simple. It is not complicated.”
When it came to Calvert-Lewin’s hot streak, Ancelotti added: “There is not just one reason. He is confident, we are seeing him improving and he is scoring goals and that is the most important motivation for a striker.
“This is the moment of Dominic Calvert-Lewin now.”