Everton snatching a well-deserved share of the spoils in the Premier League champions’ back yard seemed utterly futile as they followed it up with a meek, muddled and downright messy display in a 4-1 home defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion a mere three days later to suffer by far their most depressing result of an already troubled season.
When the Seagulls secured their first ever win at Goodison Park a year and a day before this fixture, Everton remained hopeful that they still wouldn’t be sucked into a relegation battle that season but whereas that 3-2 loss still offered some positives – namely Anthony Gordon’s first goals for the club and Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s long-awaited return to fitness, 12 months on beleaguered Blues have already braced themselves for another relegation battle.
The big question is, after the trials and tribulations of 2021/22 – manager Rafael Benitez was out of the door a fortnight after that loss – do Everton ’s players and long-suffering supporters for that matter, whose herculean efforts last term played a huge part in getting their under-achieving players over the line – have the stomach for another such fight which is now staring them firmly in the face?
AS IT HAPPENED: Everton thrashed 4-1 by Brighton in a dreadful night at Goodison
EFC RATINGS: Idrissa Gueye and three others dreadful in sorry mess
At half-time, the disappointment looked all too familiar as the home side had started in promising fashion only for an individual error from young right-back Nathan Patterson had enabled Kaoru Mitoma to leave them trailing.
However, what happened after the interval was deeply alarming to everyone concerned with preserving the club’s 69-year tenure in the top flight. Brighton are unfortunately everything that Everton are not right now, a well-organised and fluid team who continue to punch above their weight in the Premier League thanks to savvy recruitment and in the space of just six shambolic minutes, they ripped open the home defence on three separate occasions.
Teenager Evan Ferguson doubled their lead, Solly March added a third and Pascal Gross a fourth, leaving Everton shell-shocked and this game was long over as a contest by the time Demarai Gray struck a stoppage time consolation from the penalty spot.
The Blues are in a real mess now, make no mistake.
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