Everton Handing Out Some Tough Lessons To Champions League Chasing Sides! Match Highlights. Player Ratings. Manager Comments, And Stats.
By: Marc Gingell
At the start of the season, Everton were many experts favourites to finish best of the rest in 7th place and they made a good start until their visit to Anfield. That game looked destined for a 0-0 draw until Jordan Pickford’s last-second clanger, lead to Divock Origi’s winner, and Jürgen Klopp racing onto the pitch like a chicken trying to escape the chopping block.
That rocked Everton and they went into free fall which included a 6-2 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. Boss Marco Silva’s odds plummeted in the Premier Leagues next manager to be sacked sack race and Silva looked like a dead man walking! Big Sam Allardyce licked his lips. Big Sam, possibly still smarting after Everton dispensed with his services in favour of the diminutive Silva, might have even seen some potential for him to make a few million pounds with another rescue act!
But football’s a game of two halves, or in Everton’s case, another game against Liverpool, and at Goodison Park Pickford kept his nerve as the score finished 0-0. Since then three, of the four mini league contenders for 3rd and 4th Champions League place, have all come away with their tails between their legs and goalless. Chelsea 2-0, Arsenal 1-0 that really could have been five, and Manchester United 4-0.
Match Details
| 21-04 | Goodison Park | Everton (7) | 4-0 | Manchester United (6) |
| KO:13:30 | ATT: 39,395 | Richarlison 13′ | ||
| REF: P Tierney | Gylfi Sigurdsson 28′ | |||
| Lucas Digne 56′ | ||||
| Theo Walcott 64′ | ||||
Richarlison Starts Rout!
On 13 minutes Lucas Digne flung a long throw from the left into United’s box where Dominic Calvert-Lewin climbed highest at the near post and flicked on. Richarlison, at the back post, finished with a spectacular acrobatic volley. United’s defender Diogo Dalot, loitering close by, might have considered sticking his head in a bit further and taking one for the team!
Gylfi Sigurdsson
Idrissa Gueye broke up a United attack and surged forward in the 28th minute. He found Gylfi Sigurdsson, left and central about 35 yards from goal, and he advanced five yards before unleashing a low shot to David de Gea’s right. The United keeper used to stop shots like that!
Lucas Digne
Digne fired in number three from a corner on 56 minutes. Sigurdsson swung the corner from the left where de Gea punched to Digne’s left side just outside United’s box. The former Barcelona man fired through a ruck of players to score. De Gea, who might have seen it late, didn’t make any kind of effort to save it.
Theo Walcott
Number four came from Theo Walcott after Sigurdsson put him clear on the left. As de Gea raced out to meet him he side-footed into the corner.
Manchester United Were Calamitous!
In their last five Premier League games United have lost to Everton, Wolves, and Arsenal. The two home wins they had during this period, against West Ham and Southampton, were lucky. But, at this stage of the season, being lucky and ugly doesn’t matter. Winning is all that matters and United didn’t look anything like a top four side against Everton.
Former player Gary Neville described them as rancid and they didn’t manage a shot on target until the 86th minute.
Gary Neville Comments
“I’m furious, to be honest with you. I’ve often said about clubs in the last seven years, if you’ve got weeds in the garden then you’ve got to get rid of them. But there is some Japanese knotweed at that football club and it is attacking the foundations of the house and needs dealing with properly. That performance today was rancid.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGCpPJXFIk
Player Ratings
Everton: Pickford (7), Coleman (7), Keane (7), Zouma (7), Digne (8), Gueye (8), Schneiderlin (7), Richarlison (8), Sigurdsson (9), Bernard (7), Calvert-Lewin (7).
Subs: Walcott (7), McCarthy (6), Jagielka (6)
Man Utd: De Gea (5), Lindelof (5), Jones (4), Smalling (5), Dalot (6), Matic (4), Fred (5), Pogba (5), Rashford (6), Martial (5), Lukaku (5).
Subs: Young (5), McTominay (5), Pereira (6)
Man of the match: Gylfi Sigurdsson
Opta Stats
- This was Everton’s biggest margin of victory over Manchester United in any competition since October 1984, when they beat them 5-0 in a top-flight contest. It was also Man Utd’s biggest defeat to any opposition since October 2016 against Chelsea in the Premier League (also 0-4).
- This was Manchester United’s fifth consecutive away defeat across all competitions, their longest such run of losses since March 1981 under Dave Sexton (also five).
- Manchester United have conceded 48 Premier League goals in 2018-19, their highest ever tally in a single season in the competition and their most in a league campaign since 1978-79 (63).
- Everton have won more Premier League points at home to the “big-six” clubs this season (10 – P6 W3 D1 L2) than any other team from outside the top six in the table, with only Man City (15), Liverpool (13) and Chelsea (11) earning more overall at home to such opposition.
- Manchester United have gone 11 consecutive matches without a clean sheet in all competitions for the first time since December 1998.
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