29 December 2024
Everton 0 Nott’m Forest 2
Everton welcomed Nottingham Forest to Goodison Park with both sides needing the three points for very different reasons. The Toffees had got some impressive draws of late against Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City but this run of results had not really improved their league position. The visitors were looking to cement their place in the top four.
The hosts made a good start as Doucoure was given time and space on the ball. He fed it to Ndiaye who turned his marker brilliantly. He skipped past several Forest players before the goal opened up for him. He had seemed to have done all the hard work but skied his shot over the crossbar to let the visitors off with just a warning.
Sean Dyche’s side have been struggling for goals for some time now. This is why they find themselves dragged into a relegation dogfight. He opted to switch Calvert-Lewin for Broja to try and change their luck in the final third. Sadly it did not seem to change their output as they continued to shoot like Taliban soldiers at Goodison Park.
Nottingham Forest had barely threatened in the opening stages, until a long ball forward found Wood. He cushioned his header to Elanga, who returned the favour by laying it into his path in the box. The Kiwi striker than lifted the ball over Pickford and into the back of the net. It showed The Toffees all they were missing in the final third of the pitch themselves.
It was a first-half of few chances, not that the visitors were bothered by this now they had their lead. Dyche’s side are playing a style this season where they look to counter-attack their opponents but this makes it all the more difficult to get back into games when you fall behind. The Toffees’ manager had done well to steady the ship in recent seasons but you feel they need to strengthen their squad now.
Playing with the mentality of a newly promoted side was not giving Everton that impetus to take games to the opposition. Without this, you will struggle to win games. As we have seen in recent weeks, as commendable as their draws had been, the solitary points they were picking up had allowed the sides below them to gain ground with victories.
Forest should have doubled their lead in added time at the end of the first half. Gibbs-White spotted the run of Sosa and threaded an inch-perfect pass into his path. The attacker hit a first-time shot narrowly wide of the far post with Pickford beaten. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side made it look so easy to open up The Toffees’ defence, the home faithful looked concerned.
After the interval, the match proved to be a scrappy affair. Neither side could take the game by the scruff of the neck and dominate. Loose passes were giving away possession and neither keeper had been called into action. With things so finely poised, you felt that the next goal was going to prove crucial to the outcome at Goodison Park.
The visitors pushed forward and a stray pass was not dealt with by a hesitant Mykolenko. Elanga capitalised as he picked it up and threaded it through to Wood. The striker, still outside the penalty area, spotted the run of Gibbs-White and played an inch-perfect pass into his path. He checked onto his left foot to beat his man before drilling his shot past Pickford to double the lead.
Even with just under half an hour to play, you felt that Forest had put this game beyond The Toffees. The away end erupted as the ball hit the back of the net. They are in dreamland so far this season, not even the most blinkered fan would have predicted their current league position. It has been some time since they had graced European competition but it was becoming an achievable goal now.
Moments later, the visitors were threatening again. Sosa fired a shot off from the edge of the box which Pickford did not deal with. His parry gave Williams the chance to follow up but the Everton keeper redeemed himself saving once more. As the ball broke back to Sosa, he drilled an effort towards goal but it was turned around the post.
The visitors seemed to opt to shut up shop after their second goal. It gave Dyche’s side the chance to start venturing forward more and putting some pressure on Forest. As a ball was played into the box, Mangala instinctively turned it towards goal but Sels did well to react and save at the expense of a corner for the hosts.
Lindstrom then found some space just outside the box and clipped a curling cross into the danger area. Calvert-Lewin had a free header as he looked to glance it towards the bottom corner. The striker had his angles all wrong as his effort missed the far post. It summed up The Toffees’ display as they struggled to threaten the Forest goal.
It took until the 87th minute for the hosts to create a clear sight of goal. A teasing cross into the box picked out Beto but his header was straight at Sels in the Forest goal. The keeper parried the ball out but in all fairness, as most keepers do nowadays, he made it look more testing than it actually was. The Toffees’ fans were leaving the ground in their droves by now.
Forest should have made the scoreline more impressive deep into added time when they countered from an Everton attack. Elanga used his pace to leave the defence for dead but as he tried to poke it past Pickford the keeper blocked well. More impressively, he got straight back to his feet to deflect the follow-up wide of the target.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side took all three points and moved up to second in the Premier League table. Everton however now only sit two points above the relegation zone. If their new owners are planning big things with the club, they may need to get their chequebook out in the January transfer window just to ensure they secure their top-flight status right now.
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