While 2021/22 was a season of struggle for Everton, it proved a breakthrough year for Anthony Gordon. It was fitting, thenm that the Blues’ home-grown talent produced a goalscoring display that showcased yet another element of his rapidly-developing game as the campaign draws towards its close.
Gordon has been a bundle of energy and enterprise for both club and country this year and while he has yet to break through to Gareth Southgate’s senior national squad, he’s been a mainstay for England’s Under-21s under the watchful eye of head coach Lee Carsley, himself a former Goodison Park fans’ favourite.
Friday night’s trip to Kosovo was Gordon’s seventh appearance for the Young Lions this term and, having been man-of-the-match in the 3-0 win over Albania in Chesterfield three days earlier, a result that secured their place in the finals of next summer’s European Under-21s Championship in Romania and Georgia, Gordon was one of just three players who kept their place in the starting line-up as Carsley rang the changes.
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It’s testament to the kind of pivotal role that Gordon plays in the team that despite having already clinched qualification and having played so much football already in recent months, he was again given the nod in Pristina, but with England already 3-0 up and another three points safely on their way to being secured, he was taken off on 56 minutes, perhaps leaving the door open for him to feature again in the final group fixture against Slovenia in Huddersfield on Monday.
As well being on the key figures in Carsley’s side, Gordon is one of just a handful of players within the squad who are already playing regularly in the English top flight. The likes of Arsenal’s Emile Smith Rowe, Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey and Norwich City’s Max Aarons have also been turning out routinely for their clubs, but it was Gordon who made the most Premier League appearances of anyone in the group in 2021/22 with 35 in total for Everton.
Indeed, he was the only Blues player to turn out in 40 games in all competitions this term, and has clocked up 3,108 minutes of football (almost 52 hours), which is good going for a player of whom Rafael Benitez claimed couldn’t complete 90 minutes early in the season – an observation that Gordon himself concurred with, admitting that physically he was a late developer, and that he’s been working hard on his fitness. Celebrating his 21st birthday on February 24, this was the year that the boy became a man, though, both on and off the pitch.
Loaned out by Carlo Ancelotti to Preston North End for the second half of 2020/21, Gordon revealed in an interview with the ECHO that his spell in the Championship taught him how lucky he was to be in the Premier League, and he played as determined role as anyone in the Everton squad to fend off the looming threat of a first relegation for the club in 71 years. As well as becoming one of the first names on the team sheet for first Benitez and then Frank Lampard through his work-rate, Gordon has also added goals to his game.
It was with England Under-21s that he broke his scoring duck against the Czech Republic at Turf Moor back in November and like buses, another one soon followed as he finished the game with another. Curiously the same happened when Gordon struck for the first time at club level at the 47th time of asking at home to Brighton & Hove Albion on January 2 as he also bagged a brace against the Seagulls.
Gordon’s maiden strikes for both England Under-21s and Everton both came via deflections – not that he’ll care – as did his match-winner against Manchester United, but his latest goal was quite different than the seven that had come before. All the others had come with swipes of his boot but here in Kosovo was a classic ‘centre-forward’s’ header as, attacking the edge of the six-yard box, he nodded with power and precision into the roof of the net from Aarons’ right-wing cross.
Regardless of continued speculation over the Blues number nine’s future, the youngster isn’t going to be taking up Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s role in the side any time soon, but there were certainly shades of his already iconic goal against Crystal Palace in the way that Gordon emphatically despatched the chance. Hopefully a few well-earned weeks of rest now await the Scouser, enabling him to recharge his batteries ahead of what should be a season of improvement at Goodison Park, but this latest highlight is another special Gordon moment to whet fans’ appetite of what could lie ahead when he’s back in an Everton shirt in the months ahead.
