John Brewin's match report
That’s all for today. I’ll leave you with John Brewin’s match report from the Gtech. I can’t just call it ‘the Gtech’, can I? It’s hardly the Maracanã.
I’ll leave you with John Brewin’s match report from the Gtech Community Stadium. Goodnight!
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Burnley v Man Utd kicks off at 8pm. The great Tim de Lisle – who made me want to be a sports journalist, and who then taught me how to be one – is covering that game.
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The updated Premier League table
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 6 | 13 | 18 |
| 2 | Tottenham Hotspur | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 5 | 5 | 13 |
| 5 | Brighton | 5 | 8 | 12 |
| 6 | West Ham | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| 7 | Aston Villa | 5 | 1 | 9 |
| 8 | Crystal Palace | 6 | -1 | 8 |
| 9 | Fulham | 6 | -5 | 8 |
| 10 | Nottm Forest | 6 | -2 | 7 |
| 11 | Newcastle | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 12 | Brentford | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 13 | Man Utd | 5 | -4 | 6 |
| 14 | Chelsea | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 15 | Everton | 6 | -5 | 4 |
| 16 | Wolverhampton | 6 | -6 | 4 |
| 17 | AFC Bournemouth | 5 | -4 | 3 |
| 18 | Sheff Utd | 5 | -4 | 1 |
| 19 | Burnley | 4 | -8 | 1 |
| 20 | Luton | 5 | -8 | 1 |
Full time: Brentford 1-3 Everton
Peep peep! Everton leap out of the relegation zone with a fine win at Brentford, their first of the Premier League season. Abdoulaye Doucoure, James Tarkowski and the substitute Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the goals, with James Garner and Beto also impressing.
We shouldn’t get carried away, but that’s a big result for a team that has been the subject of almost ceaseless negativity since the start of the season.
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90+5 min Since the start of last season, and before today, Brentford had lost only two of their 22 league games at home. In short, this is a great result for Everton.
90+3 min “I’m surprised we haven’t heard from Mary Waltz,” says Joe Pearson. “Do we know if she’s OK?”
She’s probably in shock.
90+2 min This one’s for the Everton fans.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Wolverhampton | 6 | -6 | 4 |
| 17 | AFC Bournemouth | 5 | -4 | 3 |
| 18 | Sheff Utd | 5 | -4 | 1 |
| 19 | Burnley | 4 | -8 | 1 |
| 20 | Luton | 5 | -8 | 1 |
90 min Six minutes of added time. Branthwaite is booked for a foul on Onyeka.
89 min: Brentford substitution Michael Olakigbe replaces Keane Lewis-Potter.
89 min Garner’s corner is headed over by the backpedalling Tarkowski.
88 min “While I don’t think Brentford will be in serious trouble this season as there are definitely worse teams, it does already feel like they have peaked,” says Kevin Wilson . “Not just with Ivan Toney. Most of the big money signings since promotion have failed and the dropped points at home against similar level opposition don’t bode well at all. I reckon it will be a significant decline on last season and they will be in the bottom third.”
I’d probably agree with that, although they do have an excellent record against the bigger teams so maybe we need to reserve judgement. But they will go down one of these years; what they have achieved is pretty astonishing, and therefore unsustainable.
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87 min You can’t always trust stats – you should see some of the Euro 80 numbers! – but they tell a fair story today. Everton have had 17 shots to Brentford’s 11, and six on target to Brentford’s two. They deserve to win.
86 min Danjuma is very well tackled on the edge of the D by Norgaard. Brentford don’t look like getting back into this.
84 min All good teams have off days, apart from Manchester City, and this is Brentford’s. But the poverty of their performance shouldn’t overshadow a terrific win for Everton. It’s probably not a coincidence that plenty of their best results under Sean Dyche have been away from home, such is the understandable negativity at Goodison these days. If they can find a bit of stability, then make Goodison Park a thoroughly unpleasant place to visit, they will be fine.
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82 min Ghoddos is booked for deliberately tripping Young.
81 min “Remind me, who sold James Garner?” asks Rob Hisnay. “Meanwhile, Manchester United’s back 4 today vs. Burnley is: Dalot-Evans-Lindelof-Reguilon, with Onana in goal!”
It’s a nice burn, but there are two peedie problems: Garner’s a midfielder, and Erik ten Hag’s preferred back four are all injured.
80 min Ghoddos’s very deep cross is volleyed straight at Pickford by Mbeumo. A quarter-chance.
79 min “As much as I would like to see the two strikers play together, you are 100 per cent correct - Doucoure has to stay on the pitch,” says Brad Wilson. “It was Frank Lampard’s greatest fault that he didn’t play him. Doucoure tracks back, hustles every minute, and can finish -- as we have seen so critically. The question becomes when Jack Harrison is fit ... he has to play, right? I think so.”
I’d imagine it will be Harrison left, McNeil right. With the quality of their service it’s even more tempting to play two strikers, but I suspect that will mainly happen when they are chasing games at home.
78 min “Garner (Rockford or Maverick, you choose) has been magnificent all match,” writes Joe Pearson. “That steal to set up the DCL goal was the feather in the cap.”
77 min: Everton substitution Arnaut Danjuma replaces Amadou Onana, so Garner will move into midfield.
77 min Mbeumo is booked for a foul on McNeil, who has a really good second half.
76 min If it stays like this Everton will move up to 16th, a point behind Chelsea and two behind Manchester United. They have Luton at home next weekend.
75 min Pickford miskicks a clearance straight to a Brentford player 35 yards out – but the referee Michael Oliver inadvertently makes a vital interception. That would have been a half-chance because Pickford was out of his goal.
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74 min A word on James Garner, who has been very good today. That was such a good pass for the goal, vaguely reminiscent of Eric Cantona the way he suddenly stabbed it with no backlift.
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73 min: Brentford substitution Saman Ghoddos replaces Aaron Hickey.
Everton deserve this for their second-half dominance. Nathan Collins was robbed by James Garner, who moved forward and poked a gorgeous pass through to Calvert-Lewin. He opened his body to sidefoot a low shot that hit the leg of Flekken and ricocheted slowly into the net.
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GOAL! Brentford 1-3 Everton (Calvert-Lewin 71)
The ball didn’t evade Calvert-Lewin this time!
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71 min Pickford’s long pass, and it was a pass, just evades Calvert-Lewin and runs through to Flekken.
70 min “Beto’s end product might need more work than Evertonians would like considering his price tag, but he does so many other things well and his commitment is impressive,” says Eric Peterson. “I, for one, think a top-two pairing of him and Dominic Calvert-Lewin has the potential to be not just productive but sublime.”
Sublime isn’t necessarily the word I’d use but I agree they could be very effective, particularly at Goodison. The problem is that would probably mean leaving out Doucoure, who has become a key player.
69 min: Chance for Brentford! A free-kick from the right leads to an almighty scramble in the six-yard box. At least one shot was desperately blocked on the line, and eventually the ball was smuggled behind for a corner.
68 min Tarkowski, who has been booed today because of the way he left Brentford, put his fingers over his ears when he scored and then ran off in celebration. Balls to that ostentatious non-celebration nonsense!
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It came from a corner on the right. McNeil’s curled a superb ball into the six-yard box, where Tarkowski bullied his man (possibly Jensen) and planted a simple header into the net.
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GOAL! Brentford 1-2 Everton (Tarkowski 67)
James Tarkowski scores against his old club!
65 min Brentford haven’t had a touch in the opposition area since half-time. Everton have had five.
64 min: Everton substitution Beto has emptied the tank for the cause, so Dominic Calvert-Lewin replaces him up front. Beto missed a good chance but his hold-up/link play was excellent.
63 min McNeil, 20 yards out, drags a tame shot well wide.
61 min: Double substitution for Brentford Kristoffer Ajer and Frank Onyeka replace Mads Roerslev and Vitaly Janelt. That means a switch to a back three with Mbeumo as the right wing-back.
59 min Tarkowski’s curling is headed wide of the far post by Beto, 14 yards out. He’s annoyed with himself but it was a pretty tricky chance, especially as there was no pace on the ball.
57 min McNeil’s long free-kick is nodded back across goal by Tarkowski and headed wide by Onana. The angle was very tight and he was running away from goal; he’d have needed a telescopic neck to get it on target.
56 min Brentford haven’t got going since the break. Apart from a decent 15-minute spell after the equaliser, they’ve been surprisingly poor in attack.
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55 min Garner, who has had a good game, nicks the ball off Jensen just inside the Brentford area. Jensen recovers to make an important tackle.
54 min McNeil and Garner, nominally the wide players, have had the freedom to roam all evening. Everton are keeping the ball pretty well at the moment, although their tempo could be better.
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52 min Beto tries his luck from 50 yards, and why not. This attempt is comfortably saved by Flekken, as is McNeil’s shot from 20 yards moments later.
49 min Full disclosure: it hasn’t been the most exhilarating start to the second half.
46 min Peep peep! Brentford begin the second half; no changes on either side.
“I’ve stopped for lunch while driving through Oklahoma and I’ve had the game on satellite radio,” writes Matt Burtz, Oklahoma’s biggest Everton fan. “It’s very typical of Everton to concede in such a fashion after starting strong but only scoring the one goal. Here’s hoping they can somehow conjure up another one, or at least hang on for the draw. Beto has to hit the Premier League scoresheet at some point, right?”
I hope so. I really like him and want him to do well. His record in Serie A was decent: 22 in 65 games for a mid-table side in Udinese.
“Based on the evidence of this first half, Idrissa Gueye may just be the most out of confidence player I’ve seen so far this season,” writes Alex Whitney. “Does Dyche have no one else to put on in midfield?”
I don’t think so. You could play Onana there but Sean Dyche likes to have at least two ballwinners. At a push I suppose you could play Garner and Onana as the two No6s.
Half-time reading
Half time: Brentford 1-1 Everton
That’s the end of a flawed but interesting first half. Both goals came against the run of play – Abdoulaye Doucoure for Everton in the sixth minute, Mathias Jensen for Brentford in the 28th.
Brentford were almost bewilderingly bad between the goals but dominated thereafter. Even then, Everton were a threat on the break and the otherwise superb Beto missed a pretty good chance.
See you in 10 minutes for the second half.
45+1 min Three minutes of added time.
45 min Beto’s excellent cross-shot on the turn drifts across the six-yard box and behind for a goalkick. That was crying out for a sniffer to charge onto the bat and roof it gleefully from a yard out.
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44 min Gueye shoots high and wide from distance. Know your limits, son.
41 min: Chance for Brentford! Wissa releases the speedy Mbeumo on the right side of the area. He slides a low cross that beats Pickford and is pushed just wide by Lewis-Potter, four yards out beyond the far post. That makes it sound like an open goal but it was trickier than that. Tarkowski slid in front of Lewis-Potter, and may have got a slight touch on the ball. Either way, his presence impacted Lewis-Potter’s attempt.
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40 min I think Onana twisted his ankle, which is why he fell over. He’s being booed but that’s unfair; he wasn’t trying to buy a penalty.
39 min Beto shows a cracking turn of pace to burst away from Roerslev on the left. He angles a low cross behind Onana, who goes down after a challenge from Hickey. I don’t think anybody appealed for a penalty.
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38 min Here’s Mathias Jensen’s equaliser.
JENSEN EQUALISES! 💪
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 23, 2023
Just moments after Everton hit the bar, Brentford are level again 🐝💥 pic.twitter.com/hVrBbpr6ie
36 min: Chance for Beto! Another opportunity goes begging for Everton. Onana (I think) runs 30 yards and slides a good pass down the side of the Brentford defence. Beto runs through on goal but then scoops a slightly weird shot that goes over Flekken and wide of the far post. I think he missed his kick.
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35 min Beto again does well to muscle Collins aside and collect a nothing ball forward, but he’s all on his own and the attack peters out.
34 min It’s all Brentford now. Everton are being pinned in their third, never mind their half.
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33 min “To my neutral eye Everton look, on paper at least, to have a stronger squad than Brentford today, which seems to go against all received wisdom,” says Richard Hirst. “What am I missing?”
Nothing. On paper their squad is stronger, but football has a million controllables and in recent years Brentford have controlled them a lot better.
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31 min Goals change games, and indeed atmospheres. Brentford are suddenly full of the joys.
GOAL GIVEN! Brentford are level.
VAR check! Hang on, Wissa may have been offside in the build-up.
Janelt collected a loose ball 30 yards out and angled a neat, disguised pass across to Jensen on the right of the area. He took a touch and smashed a low shot that the diving Pickford could only push onto the far post and into the net. My first impression was that, having got to the ball, Pickford might have done better.
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GOAL! Brentford 1-1 Everton (Jensen 28)
Oh, Everton.
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27 min: Doucoure hits the bar! Everton need to get this game wrapped up before half-time because Brentford are there for the taking. Tarkowski drives a long, angled pass towards Doucoure in the area. He backs into Roerslev, controls the ball on the chest and lashes a shot across goal. It beats Flekken but thumps off the bar.
26 min Garner’s long-range shot is well blocked by Norgaard. Garner has taken up some very interesting positions, and yes I know I had him crossing for himself in the 17th minute. So sue me!
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26 min “Can’t help but think that both the Brentford team and crowd were expecting a routine win today as they’re both well below par,” says Stephen Carr.
25 min Pinnock’s crossfield pass goes out of play for an Everton throw. Brentford have been very poor by their standards, particularly in possession.
24 min “Brentford was the last place we lived in the UK before emigrating and I would occasionally trot along to Griffin Park,” writes Adam Robrts. “One morning my lovely wife, God bless her, is reading the Brentford and Chiswick Times and says: ‘Isn’t Declan McManus Elvis Costello’s real name?” “Yes” And she shows me a tiny box in the Classifieds - Declan McManus, Waterford Arts Centre, date and a price. So I trot along to the Watermans and we got to see an intimate little set by one of my musical heroes. Demon Records was based in Brentford and Nick Lowe lived in The Butts.”
23 min Everton break dangerously, five on five, but McNeil’s cross is behind both Garner and Doucoure.
22 min Here’s Doucoure’s goal if you’re into all that.
WHAT A START FOR EVERTON!
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 23, 2023
Doucoure gives the visitors an early lead 🔵 pic.twitter.com/Qa2Roa5dFp
21 min: Great chance for Mykolenko! McNeil’s cross from the left goes straight to Pinnock in the D. He tries to clear it but instead contrives to play a through ball for Mykolenko, who shoots straight at Flekken with his right foot. That was a really good chance.
21 min Everton are playing pretty well, though they might be missing a trick by not going in for the kill. I doubt Brentford will play this badly for the entire game.
19 min Brentford aren’t at the races.
17 min Garner’s angled cross is headed wide by Onana. A tenth of a chance.
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16 min Beto looks a good player. He can appear ungainly but he has a deft touch and excellent awareness of the players running off him. He also loves a bit of hard graft.
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14 min: Chance for McNeil! A long ball forward is headed on superbly by Beto towards McNeil, who surges between Roerslev and Pinnock and drives a low shot just wide of the far post. That was a pretty good effort from a tight angle.
14 min The passing from both sides hasn’t been the best. The last time I checked the passing accuracy was around 70 per cent, which is almost in England v Ireland at Italia 90 territory.
12 min A few groans from the home crowd when Hickey’s pass to Janelt is intercepted. It’s not happening for Brentford, yet.
10 min The home crowd seem a bit stunned by that goal. It hasn’t been the greatest start from Brentford, even if they have had most of the possession.
The corner was punched away by Flekken, but Young picked up the loose ball and gave it back to Garner on the left. His cross was headed down by Tarkowski towards Doucoure, who swished it past Flekken on the bounce. That’s a fine finish.
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GOAL! Brentford 0-1 Everton (Doucoure 6)
Abdoulaye Doucoure scores another crucial goal for Everton!
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5 min McNeil wins Everton’s first corner down the left. From which…
4 min That crackle of electricity from Lewis-Potter aside, it’s been a slow, subdued start to the game.
2 min Mbeumo curls the free-kick well wide.
1 min A brilliant run from Lewis-Potter, who came into the Brentford team at the last minute. He zips infield and is brought down 25 yards from goal by Young, who is booked.
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1 min Peep peep! Everton kick off from right to left as we watch.
A late change for Brentford Kevin Schade injured his groin in the warm-up, so Keane Lewis-Potter replaces him.
Brentford (possible 4-3-3) Flekken; Roerslev, Collins, Pinnock, Hickey; Jensen, Norgaard, Janelt; Mbeuemo, Wissa, Lewis-Potter.
Substitutes: Strakosha, Balcombe, Jorgensen, Ajer, Ghoddos, Onyeka, Yarmoluk, Olakigbe, Brierley.
Everton (possible 4-4-1-1) Pickford; Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Garner, Gueye, Onana, McNeil; Doucoure; Beto.
Substitutes: Joao Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Godfrey, Hunt, Calvert-Lewin, Danjuma, Chermiti, Dobbin.
Referee Michael Oliver.
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Sean Dyche speaks to Sky Sports
🗣 "We have to turn performances into wins, I'm well aware of that."
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 23, 2023
Sean Dyche previews Everton's trip to Brentford 🔵🐝 pic.twitter.com/4cWZMzrpb9
The last time Everton played a brilliantly run club whose named begins with Br-, they won 5-1, so there’s that.
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Everton start the game in 18th place, hoping to escape the mini-league they have formed with the promoted clubs. Brentford have had a solid enough start to the season and sit in 11th place; a win tonight would put them seventh.
Today’s Premier League results
Crystal Palace 0-0 Fulham
Luton 1-1 Wolves
Man City 2-0 Nottm Forest
Team news
Brentford bring in Kevin Schade and Mads Roerslev for the injured pair of Ben Mee and Rico Henry. That means a switch to 4-3-3.
There’s one change for Everton: James Garner is in for Arnaut Danjuma.
Brentford (possible 4-3-3) Flekken; Roerslev, Collins, Pinnock, Hickey; Jensen, Norgaard, Janelt; Mbeuemo, Wissa, Schade.
Substitutes: Strakosha, Jorgensen, Ajer, Ghoddos, Onyeka, Yarmoluk, Olakigbe, Brierley, Lewis-Potter.
Everton (possible 4-1-4-1) Pickford; Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye; Garner, Doucoure, Onana, McNeil; Beto.
Substitutes: Joao Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Godfrey, Hunt, Calvert-Lewin, Danjuma, Chermiti, Dobbin.
Referee Michael Oliver.
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Brentford v Everton at the Gtech Community Stadium. We’ve been having technical problems – sorry sorry sorry – so let’s cut straight to the team news.
