Jordan Pickford says he was backing himself to save Viktor Gyokeres' penalty which ultimately proved the difference at Hill Dickinson Stadium
Jordan Pickford says Everton ran Arsenal close at Hill Dickinson Stadium
Jordan Pickford says Everton ran Arsenal close at Hill Dickinson Stadium
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Jordan Pickford has praised Everton’s efforts in running Arsenal close while responding to unsavoury chants from the away end at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The Gunners returned to the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 win through Viktor Gyokeres’ 27th minute penalty after Jake O’Brien handled the ball in an aerial challenge with Riccardo Calafiori when defending a corner kick. The incident that led to the spot-kick wasn’t seen by referee Sam Barrott on the pitch, but he awarded it after being invited to consult his pitchside monitor by Michael Salisbury on VAR duties.
Pickford said: “Everyone knows how much of a threat Arsenal are on set-pieces. Initially I’ve thought that Jake has headed it absolutely brilliant, but then VAR has stepped in.
“It is what it is and I always back myself to save a penalty, so I’m a bit disappointed. They’re the fine margins in the Premier League and the game at the highest level, but we’ll dust ourselves down and get ready for 27th December (the next game at Burnley).”
Several Everton players claimed they should have had a penalty of their own when William Saliba kicked Thierno Barry in the area, but that decision wasn’t given. Pickford was unsure though and said: “I’ve not seen it back, so I don’t know, it might have been soft, it might not have been. It’s about how do we keep creating those chances and putting teams under pressure and putting the ball in the back of the net.”
Mikel Arteta’s side had been unable to break down the hosts up until that point and the England number one was pleased with the Blues’ performance. Pickford said: “We were committed and put a lot of effort in against a team who are top of the league. They don’t give many goals away, so we know they’re going to be hard to break down.
“Everyone ran their b******s off and the subs that came on put a right shift in. That’s what you need, you’re not going to get many chances against top teams and that’s why they’re top of the league and that’s probably been the difference.
“It was one of those games, I thought we defended really well and didn’t give them many opportunities at all. We defended the set-pieces well, were hard to break down, committed people forward on a press but when you commit yourself and press, top teams are going to play some good football and get out, which they did a couple of times.
“We want to be coming away with the three points or at least not getting beat at this stadium, no matter who you play against, so that’s a disappointing thing but the positive is that we’re playing good football. We’re not far off and it’s probably fine margins over the past two games where we’ve not got the first goal and put them under pressure enough, but the football side is really good, we’re so resilient.
“We’ve got a busy period ahead of us and we keep driving forward, wanting to win games, training well and demanding of each other to get results.”
For the third Everton game in a row after Nottingham Forest and Chelsea, opposition fans sang: ‘Feed the Scousers’ to the tune of Band Aid’s 1984 charity record Do They Know It’s Christmas that raised millions of pounds for famine victims in Ethiopia.
Their chants were met with widespread booing from home supporters while Hill Dickinson Stadium officials displayed the Fans Supporting Foodbanks logo across the two giant screens behind each goal.
Asked about the song, Pickford said: “That’s part of football. You’ve got to not get sucked into it as a club and as people from Merseyside.
“It’s one of them. That’s football fans all over the country, all over the world, there’s going to be chants that people don’t like and it is what it is.
“It doesn’t affect us on the pitch and hopefully it doesn’t affect our fans, but that’s football.”