4 December 2024
Everton 4 Wolves 0
The Toffees came into the month in poor form. They had got into the Christmas spirit far too early this year and had been giving points away for fun. Add to that, they were struggling to score goals and had registered more blanks than a Cole Palmer EEG. Something had to change as Wolves travelled to Goodison Park, themselves in the habit of shipping more than Amazon right now.
Certain things in life you can take for granted this time of year……..nothing but Christmas songs on the radio, way too many cars on the road and Jordan Pickford needs a stool to put the angel on his Christmas tree. Them’s the rules. Unless Sean Dyche’s side are careful, you may also be able to add The Toffees being in a relegation battle to that list.
It was the visitors who created the first chance of the game. As Strand Larsen worked the ball to Cunha on the edge of the box, he looked to curl one into the bottom corner. Pickford got down and made the save, suggesting the shot was not as far in the corner as he would have liked if his little T-Rex arms were able to get there.
Calvert-Lewin made a dart towards goal but was hauled down. Despite the ball breaking to Doucoure, who fired his wild shot over the bar, he was adjudged to be offside so the referee brought it back for the foul. It is sad to say but something you just don’t get to use so much in life anymore really seems relevant here….it was a good decision by the referee.
McNeil and Young stood over it, with the position favouring the left-footer. Young then stepped up and bent his shot around the wall and into the bottom corner of the goal. Goodison Park erupted as they finally had something to celebrate. This may well be a good Christmas after all for those long-suffering Toffees’ fans.
Everton continued their direct style and won a free kick when Dawson upended Calvert-Lewin. He didn’t know this at the time, but this moment was to lead to the unravelling of the defender’s day. We will come to that in more detail later. The hosts thought they had doubled their lead when Tarkowski rose to head home.
VAR reviewed the incident and sent the referee to the monitor. It was deemed that Mangala had come from an offside position to make a block to allow Tarkowksi to win the header. It was a let off for Gary O’Neil’s side. They had looked a shambles defensively and were struggling to cope with the direct and physical nature of the Everton attack.
Before the interval, The Toffees continued to press. As a series of crosses were half-cleared, one dropped to Mangala on the edge of the box. His volley was struck cleanly and arrowed into the back of the net. The Everton fans were going crazy, they were actually going to witness a win for their team, it had been a long time coming.
Dyche’s side were peppering the Wolves’ penalty area with lofted crosses. It definitely seemed like a tactic by The Toffees. One such ball led to Ait-Nouri giving away a seemingly needless corner. As Jose Sa failed to deal with the cross, it dropped onto the arm of Dawson and into the back of the net. The Wolves defender had sealed victory for Everton.
There is nothing worse as a sportsperson of any level. Those days where things are going to go so pear-shaped you are going to the punchline to most jokes for the next week or so. We all have them. If only you could feel them coming and avoid them. If that were possible, nobody would be seeing Craig Dawson at a football match this weekend.
Wolves almost gave themselves a lifeline on a rare attack. The ball was lifted into the back post where Doherty met it with a header. His effort had a full-stretch (2/3 of a stretch for a normal scale human being) Jordan Pickford beaten, only to see it hit the post and came back into play. That would have made for a nervy end at Goodison Park.
Everton won a free kick wide in the Wolves’ half. McNeil swung the ball in and initially it looked like a Calvert-Lewin diving header had sent the ball into the bottom corner of the goal. It was only on further inspection that is becomes apparent it was in fact turned into his own net by the hapless Dawson once again. This was that final unwinding of his day on Merseyside.
Sean Dyche won’t care how those goals come at the moment. All too often they have been drawing blanks this season and it has cost them points. Scoring four will hopefully get that monkey off their back, with local rivals Liverpool the visitors to Goodison Park on the weekend. This is an important victory for The Toffees for many reasons.
They move four points clear of the bottom three and will be in high spirits when the league leaders come to town for their next game. Wolves are now three points from safety and questions are starting to be asked about the future of their manager. Whether the board show patience in him or not could be the difference between them being a Premier League team next season or not.
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