If Everton could manage two even halves of positive football, they could be a real force in this league. That would be doubly true, of course, if they could sort out their home form because away from Bramley-Moore Dock they remain a difficult proposition for opposing teams. Despite it all, they finished this game temporarily sitting in seventh place in the Premier League thanks in large part to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
The former Leicester and Chelsea man was a huge miss for five winter weeks with a hamstring injury but, fit again, he came to the fore for the Blues once more, scoring the equaliser at Craven Cottage and then providing the wicked corner from which Bernd Leno became the second goalkeeper of the Premier League era to score two own goals against Everton.
This team has made a habit under David Moyes of starting games poorly but then belatedly working their way back in to either grab a point, as they did in dramatic fashion last weekend at Brighton, or all three as they did in this fixture last season and again this afternoon.
The character of the players continues to shine through in these situations; you just find yourself wishing they would stop digging a hole for themselves in the first place. Today, despite coming within inches of taking an early lead when Jake O’Brien hit the post, they found themselves overrun by a Fulham side bristling with all the quantities that Everton often lack — quick, incisive passing; movement off the ball; pacy full-backs; speedy wingers; creative attacking midfielders and a reliable centre-forward.
The irony of who is their current manager wouldn’t have been lost on the travelling Toffees but in true Blues fashion, Marco Silva’s team appeared to rest a little too much on their laurels in the second half and paid the price. For all but the opening 10 minutes, however, they were irresistible at times in the first half and could have been out of sight by the break.
Jordan Pickford was required to prevent Samuel Chukwueze from scoring a quick-fire second after Vitalii Mykolenko’s unfortunate own goal, the Cottagers twice hit the woodwork and Raul Jimenez really should have scored but the second period belonged to the Toffees after what proved to be an effective half-time team talk from the manager.
The debates continue to rumble among supporters over the manager’s setup, which favours square pegs in round holes to keep his trusted lieutenants in the side, and for the first 45 minutes at least, this contest offered more ammunition for those pushing for more balance in the side and for Everton’s players to start in their natural positions.
Initially, there didn’t seem to be a problem. The Blues stated with purpose and intensity and when James Garner’s swerving free-kick was tipped over the bar by Leno, the midfielder’s corner was met by O’Brien out-jumping team-mates and opponents alike but his header back across goal came back off the post rather than nestling in the back of the net.
Fulham, however, responded by taking control of the game, carving through Everton’s midfield, over-loading them down the Blues’ right flank in particular and going very close in the 11th minute when Pickford had to be alert to stop Alex Iwobi’s deflected centre and O’Brien had to head Sander Berge’s effort off his own goal-line.
The hosts took the lead in the 18th minute, though, with a goal that had more than a touch of calamity about it from the visitors’ perspective. Idrissa Gueye’s airborne tackle merely helped the ball on to Chukwueze who, in turn, found Iwobi and when Michael Keane could only present the Nigerian’s square pass to Ryan Sessegnon, the ball ended at the feet of Jimenez.
The Mexican striker seemed odds-on to score but his shot was repelled by Pickford only to hit the torso of the sliding Mykolenko and bounce into the net.
A sweeping Fulham move less than a minute later ended with Chukwueze but Pickford turned his shot around the post with a firm hand. Seven minutes later, Smith Rowe found room to whip a shot that smacked off the crossbar and when O’Brien was easily robbed of the ball on the half hour, it really should have been 2-0. Smith Rowe collected Chukwueze’s pass and teed up Jimenez but, thankfully, he screwed his shot wide from a central position.
Nowhere near as impotent as they has been in the first period at the Amex last Saturday, Everton had further attacking moments of their own. Thierno Barry was released by Dewsbury-Hall to drive towards goal but Joachim Andersen tracked him all the way and charged his shot down for a corner.
Then lovely footwork by Iliman Ndiaye allowed him to clip a cross from the byline that was headed only as far as Harrison Armstrong but the youngster’s half-volleyed strike whistled past the upright. Finally, after Keane’s header at one end had dropped to Harry Wilson but the Fulham man ballooned his shot over, Barry was s split second away from converting a brilliant low cross from Dewsbury-Hall at full stretch.
It was Silva’s men who finished the half the stronger team, however, with Smith Rowe popping up in space behind James Tarkowski but Pickford denied him with his foot and Chukwueze hammered a shot that clipped the top of the crossbar.
Whatever Moyes said in the changing room appeared to have the desired effect because while there were no changes in personnel when the teams re-merged for the second half, there was a notable shift in intensity from Everton.
Dewsbury-Hall’s neat centre was scuffed rather disappointingly into Barry by Keane rather than towards the target while two deliveries from corners either side of Mykolenko’s emergency clearance inside his own six-yard box to foil Jimenez found Everton heads but Barry back-headed wide and Tarkowski nodded over.
With Moyes watching from high in the Riverside stand as he served a touchline ban for accumulated yellow cards, the Blues’ breakthrough finally came with a quarter of an hour to go following the introductions of new signing Tyrique George and Beto for Armstrong and Barry respectively.
And the goal came from the unlikely source of some fine left-back play by Mykolenko who jinked past his man inside the box and squared it for Dewsbury-Hall to sweep home with aplomb.
Beto signalled Everton’s intent to go for the winner he cleverly knocked the ball around a defender and raced towards goal but his final touch took it a fraction away from him and Leno was able to smother it before he could attempt to prod it past him.
The decisive goal did come a minute later, however. Dewsbury-Hall was involved again, curling a corner from the right into the six-yard box where Leno tried manfully to muscle his way around O’Brien who had planted himself in front of him but the keeper only succeeded in punching the ball it into his own net.
Rodrigo Muniz planted a header over Pickford’s bar and a late foul by O’Brien on Kevin gave Fulham a late chance from a free-kick but it was to be Everton’s day.
The win maintains Everton’s remarkable away record since Moyes returned to the club 13 months ago, one that is second only to Premier League leaders Arsenal, and returns the focus to the Toffees’ frustratingly erratic home form.
Tuesday’s visit of Bournemouth offers another chance for Moyes’s side to make the supposed advantage of Hill Dickinson Stadium and press their claims for a place in Europe which seventh place now almost guarantees given that the protagonists in the Carabao Cup Final will be the Gunners and Manchester City. Let’s hope they grab the chance with both hands.
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