I woke up on Tuesday morning – perhaps like many other Evertonians – wondering whether it had all been a dream!
It was the perfect performance from Sean Dyche and the Everton team against Brighton & Hove Albion and while totally unexpected, it was a fantastic result. I wouldn’t say it makes up for all the pain that the travelling Blues supporters have had to endure this season but it was much-needed for the fanbase to finally get some kind of return for all the money, travel and time they spend as following Everton Football Club has mostly not been an enjoyable experience over the past couple of seasons.
We’ve got to give credit to the manager because even though he’d been under a bit of pressure from the fans for his decision-making over the last few games, he’s seen things that the majority of the supporters haven’t and has been pretty happy with the displays. Getting the early goal set the tone for us as goals change games but we’ve been on top against teams in the past but haven’t been productive enough when it comes to putting our chances away and have been sloppy in the final third to let teams off the hook, only for them to go down the other end and put the ball in the back of the net.
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It’s often come from our own unforced errors and had resulted in our heads dropping. But at Brighton we got the goal and it gave the players belief and seemingly an extra yard.
Brighton had the majority of possession – we only had the ball 22% of the time – but we were productive when we received the ball. The way we executed the counter-attacks and our decision-making was spot on.
I think Dwight McNeil has probably been the standout player since Dyche came in. There had been question marks throughout the season over what he was actually good at but I think the return of Dominic Calvert-Lewin has been brilliant for him, as he’s now got options like he didn’t have in the past as he knows his centre-forward is going to be in the area and he can cross it in and Abdoulaye Doucoure is pushing up from midfield as a second striker, getting himself into the box.
It’s then up to Dwight to pick and choose what he does. He can hold on to the ball for an extra couple of seconds to keep the defenders guessing, to go by himself and try and put it in the net or release it.
As fans we always want new signings to hit the ground running but unfortunately that doesn’t always happen and they need time to understand the team and the club. Since the change of manager, he seems to have that bit more confidence in his own ability.
Dwight’s work rate has been second to none and I think that’s why Demarai Gray is finding it difficult to get in the side. You can trust him to track all the way back to help Vitalii Mykolenko but he’s also got the ability to keep hold of the ball to get us up the pitch, shooting and getting his crosses in.
His first goal at Brighton was like my son taking the mickey out of me when I'm trying to play FIFA against him on the computer. It just shows Dwight’s ability and his confidence that he can take an extra few touches to make sure he puts the ball in the back of the net whereas others might have panicked and done a hit and hope.
As a player, when you score a goal you get that buzz and we saw that with Doucoure. He always runs around anyway but when you get a goal that seems to give you an extra lift and you’re able to dig deep and get some more energy from somewhere.
It wasn’t just the scorers who impressed though, Calvert-Lewin was excellent. We’ve been frustrated with Dominic because of his injury situation, thinking that we just need to throw him in but Dyche has been calm and made sure he was at a certain level before he gave him an opportunity.
Each game he’s had back now he’s made a difference but he’s also looking faster, sharper and with more match awareness with every passing 90 minutes. He might not have scored but I thought it was otherwise a perfect number nine’s performance from Dom and he made it difficult for the opposition with the fans really appreciating his efforts too.
Players like Nathan Patterson who are still developing, I though after about 10 minutes or so he had a fantastic game against Kaoru Mitoma who is a difficult winger who has been one of Brighton’s best players this season. Mykolenko also had one of his better games on the opposite flank and the centre-backs Yerry Mina and James Tarkowski were winning their battles.
Even though Jordan Pickford didn’t have much to do in that first half, he was concentrating and organising before pulling off several world-class saves after the break to show why he’s England’s number one. Dyche will have been frustrated that results haven’t always matched performances in recent weeks such as the trips to Nottingham Forest and Leicester City where if we’d have been better at certain moments we’d have got all three points but to go away from home to a top side like Brighton who have been so impressive this season, we knew we had to be at our best.
The key for Everton is now to play like that again
As enjoyable as the victory at Brighton was, the work is not done for Everton and we have to look at where we can still improve in certain moments. The majority of fans like myself have been very edgy and concerned, wondering where the points are going to come from but Dyche has seemingly been the most-calm person at the football club and while that has paid off for him at Brighton, the players now need to put that work ethic into the next three games and there could be more shock results ahead so it’s no good relying on others to do you favours, you’ve got to do the job yourselves.
We know as Evertonians that this team has not been consistent and that’s what Dyche now needs to try and bring in. We’ve seen that the players have it in them but it can’t be a one-off like when we’ve had good results earlier in the season and haven’t kicked on.
The challenge now for the remainder of the run-in is clear and that's ensuring we keep to that level now because we know the players are capable of operating at that standard. Can Dyche can keep that belief within the players between now and the end of the season?
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