**Everton held on against Ipswich Town to extend their unbeaten start.**
The hosts took an early lead when James Tarkowski’s long-range volley was chested by Thierno Barry to take it past a wrongfooted Christian Walton.
Barry appeared to double his and the Blues’ tally shortly before the hour mark in meeting a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall corner but it was disallowed for offside.
Ipswich were reduced to 10 men midway through the second half for Abdul Fatawu’s second yellow card after diving over a challenge by James Garner.
David Moyes’ side moved up to fifth in the Premier League table ahead of the season’s first international break with nine points from their first five games.
_Here were the key talking points from Hill Dickinson Stadium:_
Gritty Blues show their truest form
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Everton continue to make a mockery of their end to the summer transfer window.
A paper-thin squad should have seen its limitations exposed within weeks of the market closing yet David Moyes’ side are continuing to defy those odds.
Few would have backed the Blues to head into the campaign’s first international break sitting pretty in a European qualification spot while five games unbeaten.
Saturday’s latest outing was far from comfortable, let alone easy on the eye, as Ipswich Town seized on their hosts suffering from a collective if rare off-day.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Harrison Armstrong, two of the club’s early-season standouts, appeared noticeably out of sorts after their impressive starts.
While frustrating for supporters, this laboured victory was actually Everton in their truest form; more so than [the smash-and-grab draw with Manchester United](https://www.clickliverpool.com/sport/everton-fc/67987-everton-2-2-man-utd-three-talking-points-ainsley-maitland-niles-tyrique-george-james-garner/) here.
Digging in and withstanding pressure were hallmarks synonymous with Moyes’ first spell in the blue half of Merseyside that have resurfaced as muscle memory.
Survival will continue to be the name of the game until reinforcements can be sourced in January but the Scot’s resourcefulness shows no signs of slowing down.
Could Barry finally break the cycle?
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Life as Everton’s leading striker has become a thankless task in the past decade.
Since Romelu Lukaku’s summer 2017 departure, finding a marksman capable of matching his 20+ goals a season hauls in a royal blue shirt proved largely elusive.
Only Dominic Calvert-Lewin was able to emulate his one-time teammate’s regular feats in a solitary season – and even that happened during the Covid lockdown.
But Everton might finally have a successor capable of filling the void left by the bustling Belgian with Thierno Barry continuing to hit the goal trail in this encounter.
The No.11 racked up a fifth goal from seven matches in all competitions with quick thinking more than good fortune to reroute James Tarkowski’s wayward volley.
Only Erling Haaland has managed to score as many from the Premier League and had VAR not intervened, he would have drawn level with the Norweigan’s tally of six.
Barry is clearly a very different beast to Lukaku; no one can accuse him of lacking in industry, as was the case during his predecessor’s four seasons in the frontline.
He also remains a work in progress, as evidenced by moments of profligacy against the Tractor Boys, but is still on the right track to end a decade-long issue.
Tyler the creator still thriving
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Proving the doubters wrong has become a recurring theme at Hill Dickinson Stadium in recent weeks and Tyler Dibling is the latest case in point.
The 20-year-old managed just 350 Premier League minutes in a debut season where his £35 million price tag appeared a gamble in danger of not paying off.
Fresh from a man-of-the-match display in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup win over Wolves, however, Dibling was tasked with delivering another sprinkling of stardust.
Introduced midway through the second half in place of the again ineffectual Brennan Johnson, the winger soon injected fresh impetus to Everton’s attacks.
He should have recorded back-to-back assists when a pinpoint cross for Dewsbury-Hall was inexplicably headed the wrong side of Christian Walton’s righthand post.
Beyond that well-worked delivery, Dibling was a regular thorn in the Ipswich goalkeeper’s side with one effort saved and another fired into the side netting.
By personal admission, the England under-21 international struggled since making the move from Southampton but finally appears settled in his new surroundings.
Playing in fits and starts will only serve to build up his steadily returning confidence that promises to become a long-term asset in the final third for Moyes’ side.