The Chris Beesley talking points after Everton fight back twice to earn an important 2-2 Premier League draw at Brentford
BRENTFORD, ENGLAND - APRIL 11: Beto of Everton scores his team's first goal during the Premier League match between Brentford and Everton at Gtech Community Stadium on April 11, 2026 in Brentford, England. (Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
Beto heads in Everton's first equaliser against Brentford on Saturday (Image: Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
View Image
There was no hat-trick of one-on-ones for Beto this time around at Brentford but on this occasion, the Everton centre-forward was great value for his goal having caught the eye of Bees’ owner Matthew Benham.
Known for his data analytics-driven approach to football, the Oxford University physics graduate who worked in finance in the City of London, is credited with masterminding the recruitment of prolific strikers, Ollie Watkins, Ivan Toney, Bryan Mbeumo and now Igor Thiago who have all thrived in this corner of west London.
Speaking to the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, Benham said: “When we played Everton at our place last year, Beto missed three one on ones.
“Any decent data model worth its salt would give Beto an upgrade [based on the performance against Brentford]. That is the case for any player who happens to make three one-on-ones in a single game, even if they happen to miss them.
FOLLOW OUR EVERTON FC FACEBOOK PAGE!Latest EFC news and analysis from via the Liverpool Echo’s dedicated FB page
“Typically for a one-on-one, the odds are 50/50 that you will score. You might say he’s less efficient but the fact he is getting the positions for the shot is more important to us.”
The statistics behind “roughing up centre-halves,” as Everton superfan Dr David France predicted Beto would do in the upcoming Merseyside Derby when speaking to this correspondent in the ECHO’s Royal Blue podcast the day before this fixture, are less scientific or easy to quantify.
But the 28-year-old showed here that he’s brains as well as brawn as he netted his sixth goal since the turn of the calendar year and fourth in his last five matches.
In many ways you could see that his header was a textbook Beto goal but if you watch it back carefully, you can see how well he actually does.
It’s an inviting lofted pass from Idrissa Gueye but as the ball comes towards him, the Guinea-Bissau international actually finds himself too far forward to make a meaningful connection so he cleverly moves his body and crucially his neck backwards, in order to nod it into the net.
Having been handed the coveted number nine jersey when Dominic Calvert-Lewinn quit Everton last summer, it’s not always been plain sailing for Beto but with spring in the air – even on a windy and sometimes wet day in the capital – there is also now a spring in his step.
More to come from Cork Cafu
It was in this corresponding fixture last season that Jake O’Brien netted what was not just his first goal for Everton but his first in English senior football as netted the equaliser in a 1-1 draw with a header from Vitalii Mykolenko’s cross.
In terms of the two full-backs combining it was the kind of quality combination that you might have expected from Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman in their pomp during David Moyes’ first spell in charge of the Blues.
But while those two were the club’s best on either flank in modern times, revolutionising the position as full-backs became more attack-minded, Mykolenko is a more defensively-minded player and O’Brien is of course ostensibly a centre-half.
Of course with the likes of James Tarkowski, Jarrad Branthwaite and Michael Keane all to choose from, O'Brien wasn’t given a single Premier League start under Sean Dyche and it was up to Moyes to give him his big opportunity an auxiliary wide role in the back four in January 2025. Some 15 months on, we might not have expected him to still be there though.
O’Brien’s hulking 6ft 6in frame can come in handy as a marauding right-back though as shown by the way he outmuscled Keane Lewis-Potter in the build-up to Everton’s first goal.
Blues who follow the team wherever they go will have known about the shooting prowess of a player who netted five times for Olympique Lyonnais during his season in France from the start though after the smart turn and shot to score on his debut in a pre-season friendly at Preston North End.
Again, when the ball fell to him this time around in stoppage time in the Brentford area, there was no wild slash, just a well-struck drive to again bring the best out of compatriot Caoimhin Kelleher, but still an effort that was too hot to handle with the rebound being forced in by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Everton must look to get a more natural right-back into the squad this summer but for the time being, there could be more to come from ‘The Cork Cafu.’
Comeback kings
Speaking in his pre-match press conference at Finch Farm on Friday to preview this fixture, Everton manager Moyes admitted he remained unsure whether his players fancied this battle to qualify for Europe, but insisted he saw a “steely determination” within his squad. That was evident here as they showed the mental resilience to bounce back twice.
On too many occasions in recent years, the Blues have been guilty of displaying mental frailties when things went against them.
However, whatever your thoughts on Dyche, the former Burnley boss helped develop a tough streak within this group, remarking on how lesser groups might have “gone under,” following their unprecedented brace of points deductions in the 2023/24 season, and under Moyes they seem to have taken that on further, securing the results to match.
Jordan Pickford might have` crumbled after conceding an early penalty kick that saw his side fall behind – thankfully Mykolenko was covering him, preventing a potentially sending off that could have seen the England number one suspended for the historic first Merseyside derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium – but he recovered to make a string of smart saves to keep Everton in the contest.
The same goes for the Blues’ late saviour Dewsbury-Hall. The £25million purchase from Chelsea last August had his head in his hands after fluffing his lines with a one-on-one chance that could have put the visitors ahead and he’ll have felt even worse when Brentford went down the other end soon afterwards and restored their lead with a deflected strike.
However, when the ball came to the 27-year-old again in a crowded penalty area – this time sitting up nicely for an effort on his favoured left foot – he was on hand to slam in his seventh goal of the season and strike a potentially huge psychological boost.
George learning
Publicly, Moyes was full of praise for substitute Tyrique George in his post-match press conference, speaking about how he likes the way the on-loan prospect from Chelsea likes to get forward and try and score goals.
However, even when you’re playing as a wide attacker at Everton – a position where many of the contemporary leading marksmen operate – you’re still expected to put in a shift out of possession.
Even the team’s magic man Iliman Ndiaye does that, with his herculean efforts out of possession and a willingness to put in the hard yards and do the dirty work when the opposition have the ball, even though we all know how gifted an exciting he is when going forwards himself.
The Senegal international laboured hard on the left for most of the game, but when Dwight McNeil, another player who possesses plenty of silk but is getting minutes because of his willingness to graft, went off, Ndiaye swapped flanks.
This created the hole down the left that Brentford exploited to restore their lead and while George is primarily forward-thinking, he needs to sense danger when opponents are pushing down his side of the pitch.
Michael Kayode was able to steal a march not just on the 20-year-old but a clutch of his team-mates and Everton found themselves behind again.
The Blues have an option to sign George on a permanent deal from Stamford Bridge this summer but while he continues to offer plenty of promise, he is still very much a work in progress at this level.