Gray days
The last time Demarai Gray found the net in December it was another spectacular strike against Arsenal at Goodison Park but whereas that last-gasp winner ultimately proved too late to save Rafael Benitez – a 2-1 victory over Mikel Arteta’s side was the final three points of his reign – it’s to be hoped that this potentially crucial goal against the Premier League champions can become a watershed moment for Frank Lampard at Everton.
Over the intervening 54 weeks, Gray had only scored one other goal in the Premier League – another point-saving equaliser against Nottingham Forest in August – but his delightful effort at the Etihad showed why he remains such a mercurial talent who managers continue to persist with.
Now that the January transfer window is open, the Blues are understood to be in the market for a couple of attack-minded signings in the New Year sales, and that could include forward-thinking wide men like Gray as well as orthodox strikers so the former Leicester City man’s effort here against the reigning champions proved to be a timely reminder of just what he is capable of producing. The trick of course, for both Gray and indeed all of his Everton team-mates, is replicating such moments on a much more regular basis.
EFC VERDICT: What Ben Godfrey did in stoppage time clearly answers Frank Lampard question
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Just five days earlier, the player, who at 26-and-a-half years of age should be at the peak of his powers, was left out of Lampard’s starting line-up for a Premier League fixture for the first time this term but having been handed a recall, Gray could even afford to lose his footing before despatching his magnificent strike. It was a goal that displayed both incredible capability and composure.
Poking the bear
Other than his early form being so prolific that for a time he was ahead of Dixie Dean’s running total from his record-breaking 60-goal season in 1927/28, Erling Haaland cuts an unusual potential enemy for Everton. However, despite Manchester City’s centre-forward getting himself on the scoresheet again here, it’s probably fair to observe that he didn’t have everything go all his own way on what proved to be a frustrating afternoon.
Ben Godfrey clattered his fellow ‘Yorkshireman’ with a typically ‘no-nonsense’ challenge typical of footballers from the White Rose county with just 30 seconds on the clock and although Leeds-born Haaland needed some prolonged treatment, he got back up and into the thick of the fight. You’d have thought that having got his goal, the 22-year-old might have cut a more relaxed figure but just before the interval he was guilty of a reckless challenge on Vitalii Mykolenko that he seemed fortunate to get away with just a yellow card from.
Everton’s players were duly furious and James Tarkowski also picked up a booking for his troubles for protesting too strongly as Haaland showed himself to be light on his feet for a big man, impishly scampering away from the crime scene like a naughty schoolboy. Too often this season it’s seemed like a man against boys when opponents have found themselves overwhelmed by Haaland’s physicality but as EFC Statto points out, the Blues can be satisfied with restricting him to just two shots, both in the first half and three touches in their penalty area after the break, one of which found him in an offside position.
New Year party
It wasn’t Everton’s first win at the Etihad since December 2010 when goals from Tim Cahill and Leighton Baines secured a 2-1 away victory over Manchester City, but as the New Year’s Eve festivities approached, this was a timely occasion as any for beleaguered Blues to finally toast. Playing their first December 31 fixture since the backs-against-the-wall 1-0 success at Sunderland some 17 years earlier when Cahill’s stoppage time header snatched the points, Everton bounced back in emphatic fashion from both their Boxing Day sucker punch inflicted by Wolves and the disappointment of falling behind here in the kind of circumstances in which they have crumbled all too often in the past.
Indeed, the result extended the Blues’ unbeaten run on New Year’s Eve to seven matches and as well as avoiding what would have been a 10th consecutive league loss to City (ensuring their 13 straight reversals to Portsmouth between 1947-56 remains a club record) to also meant they were spared the ignominy of what would have been a new club record 22nd Premier League defeat in a calendar year having already matched the 21 they suffered in both 1997 and 2005 – curiously also the year of their highest position in the competition. After the dark days of this week, that’s something to raise a glass to.
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