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?
