There is clearly still some way to go for the storm clouds to lift for these two teams but, on a day when thunder, lightning and biblical rain kept the players off for a 21-minute half-time interval, at least they can see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that is Premier League salvation.
A first goal in the Premier League from Iliman Ndiaye earned Everton their first point of the season, although they did lose another lead when Stephy Mavididi secured a 73th-minute equaliser with his third goal in four games. While both teams are still seeking their first Premier League victories of the season, at least they could claim progress.
The Leicester fans booed when Mavididi, their team’s most creative player, was substituted and Steve Cooper still has much work to do on the evidence of the first half in particular to get this team playing how he wants.
“We were second best in too many of the non-negotiables in the first half,” the Leicester manager said. “But at least we rolled our sleeves up in the second half and deserved a point.
“Stephy had run his race. I understand the fans’ frustration and he was excellent in the second half. It felt likely our chances would come from that side. But I’m really happy with his performance – he didn’t come off for that, that’s obvious – he just ran out of steam.”
Everton did not start like a team struggling for confidence. Indeed, they should have been ahead even before they opened the scoring, Jesper Lindstrøm volleying wide Ndiaye’s superb cross.
Ndiaye was excellent. The former Sheffield United winger, signed from Marseille in the summer, gave his team their lead when, having lent the ball to Ashley Young, he surged on to the full-back’s brilliant return pass inside the penalty area, skipped past Harry Winks and pulled his shot in off the near post, wrongfooting Mads Hermansen in the Leicester goal.
At that point the heavens opened. Although Darren England allowed the first half to play to its conclusion, the rain only got heavier and the time between lightning and the thunderclaps narrowed. So the interval was extended by five minutes.
“Probably, the way it’s been going for me, I’d have been struck by lightning if we’d started the second half earlier,” said the Everton manager, Sean Dyche.
Both managers agreed these were the worst conditions they had witnessed at a match but at least it has stopped raining goals against Everton.
After conceding 13 goals in their opening four games, Dyche was gratified to see his team play a more compact game, with Orel Mangala impressive in the defensive midfield anchor role alongside Abdoulaye Doucouré.
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Slick, compact yet always threatening penetration through Ndiaye on the left flank and Dwight McNeil through the middle, they looked anything but a team without a point, more like a team with a point to prove.
Leicester were awful in the first half. Although Jordan Pickford juggled Mavididi’s mis-hit cross against the inside of his own post, Cooper’s poor run looked set to continue. The former Nottingham Forest manager has one win from his past 18 games in the Premier League and was relieved to see his team finish the stronger.
Everton had clearcut chances to double their lead on the counterattack and even if 2-0 is not their favourite lead after they lost their previous two games from such a vantage point they paid the price.
Leicester are nothing if not doughty. Caleb Okoli, a £12.6m summer signing from Atalanta, headed one difficult chance over from Mavididi’s dinked close-range pass.
As the storm subsided into a mere deluge, Everton appeared to tire, their squad still stretched. Mavididi equalised when Winks’s corner fell his way inside the six-yard box and his shot on the turn bounced down into the ground and up into the net. The Leicester fans booed his withdrawal but at least they had a point to cheer at full-time.
Dyche was relieved finally to get the scoreboard ticking. “It’s a point gained, because we needed a point or three, but also because of the positivity of the display,” he said. “There was a real confidence and belief in our play.”
