Southampton (h) 3, it’s a magic number
The rumour at 6:50pm was we didn’t have a lot of options off the bench...which meant Allan would start for the first time in 10 weeks. No James, Coleman or Davies. Same back 4 as the derby, Sigurdsson replacing James & Dom back in.
There isn’t much to say about this game, very little to write about, but it’s these results at home between now & the end of the season that will determine whether it’s Europe or not. Performances don’t really matter at the business end of the season, it’s about the result. We’ve all seen Everton play like 1970 Brazil at Goodison & lose.
Diet Klopp was struggling apparently, struggling to put out 11 players to compete, I’m sure if you asked Lucas Digne’s or Richarlison’s ankles, they would tell you the opposite. The thing about Diet Klopp, just like his idol is that he loves the camera when things are going his way, but when it’s not, just like big red, it’s never his fault & we should all feel sorry for him...cry it in Ralph, cry it in with your OJ Simpson gloves & ‘JK’ snood on.
For Everton’s goal on 8 mins, a straight back to front ball from Pickford was headed into the air by Dom to get control & then towering above Salisu, who was left in a crumpled heap, Dom headed on to Sigurdsson. Gylfi played a ball straight between the Southampton defence for Richarlison to almost carbon copy his derby goal via a trip around Fraser Forster. 1-0, great goal.
Michael Keane had a goal ruled out for a Mason Holgate offside, that was the real ‘picky’ side of VAR. Or, it was Jon Moss on VAR which meant Holgate & Keane could have been well onside & the goal still wouldn’t stand. Moss, Mason, Dean, how on earth are they still in top level jobs? The major surprise is that Moss didn’t give a penalty when Che Adams tripped Ben Godfrey up & tried to sit on him, claiming contact. Ralph crying it in again....... mind those gloves Ralph, even if there isn’t 39588 at the game, it’s live TV! HT1-0.
No changes at Halftime, the midfield 3 of Allan, Doucoure & Gomes had done extremely well in stopping Southampton waltz through the middle of the pitch like earlier on this season. For his first game back since the end of December, Allan was excellent. Doucoure was a little loose in possession but I think it was down to having the safety net of Allan behind him. Gomes was neat, great close control & was looking, just like at Man Utd away to play the ball down the channels to avoid midfield congestion. It wasn’t pretty football, but that wasn’t needed in this game. It was just about the result.
A free kick wide on the left found Michael Keane with the freedom of the Gwladys St, & his headed centre was millimetres over Dom’s head, the clearance finding Godfrey, who’s shot to double the lead was headed wide by Vestergaard. I think from that moment it became we hold what we have.
A flurry of changes by Klopp Idol saw Djenepo fire wide when he should have done a lot better. Just before that, the battered & bruised Salisu headed well wide. None of these chances were falling to Ings, a minor miracle in itself!! The last 10 minutes saw Iwobi come on for Everton & within 1 phase of play had more take on’s than any player that whole game, it was attritional, Southampton made it that way by kicking lumps out of everyone that broke a tackle or found space. They are a poor team, with some good players. Players that are likely to be nowhere near St Mary’s next season. Probably as far away as their manager should be.
5 minutes to go & it turned into a cup-tie. Corners, free kicks all aimed under Pickford’s crossbar. One excellent save from Vestergaard. I have messaged Sky Sports to enquire about the health of Don Goodman after that save, he seemed to let out either a cry of disappointment or he was having an electric shock, not clear yet as I haven’t had a reply. Pickford was relatively untroubled, like the derby he did what he needed to do when he needed to do it & it’s resulted in back to back clean sheets, when we’d likely needed them most this season. FT 1-0. A home win!!!!
Winning pretty & winning well is great, but we aren’t there yet. I’ll take games like that all day long. This was as George Graham’s Arsenal as possible & I’m all for it, for now. I’m fed up of the hard luck stories of how we played well & got nothing. I’m all for getting the points & letting Sky & BT cry arse about if we’re good enough for Europe.
We move on to Thursday!! UTFT 💙
