Everton have worked hard to reshape a squad that recorded the joint lowest equivalent points total in the club’s history last season and only stayed up in the Premier League with one game to spare but for all their improvements so far, the areas in which they’re short remain glaringly obvious.
A week ago, the Blues faced the daunting task of tackling Chelsea without a recognised striker and although Salomon Rondon – who netted just once in 20 Premier League outings – was back from suspension for their trip to Villa Park, Frank Lampard opted to retain Anthony Gordon as a false number nine.
As game and hard-working as the Everton home-grown hero was again in this unfamiliar role, it is far from an ideal way of utilising his talents. Gordon has been challenged by his manager to provide more goals and assists this term but merely being handed the number 10 jersey is not going to turn him into Romelu Lukaku overnight.
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For a few glorious seconds it seemed as though Gordon had broken the deadlock and stabbed the visitors ahead from a corner-kick and he celebrated by making a phone call gesture.
The effort was ruled out by a late but seemingly correct assistant referee’s flag for offside but replays showed that at the same time, Lucas Digne appeared to be tugging on Conor Coady’s shirt so perhaps Blues officials should get on the blower to the Premier League to ask why yet another contentious decision has gone against them?
Not that they’ve had much joy in that department in recent months. Apologies count for absolutely nothing when these things keep on happening.
It wasn’t the first big call of the afternoon to go against Gordon either. Tyrone Mings had earlier sent him sprawling to the turf with what appeared to be a blatantly obvious shove only for referee Michael Oliver to shake his head.
Perhaps it didn’t help Gordon’s cause that he went down clutching his face rather than his body where he was struck and this remains a point of contention over the player with potential residue to the incident over the non-awarding of a penalty in the Merseyside Derby at Anfield that resulted in Lampard picking up a fine for his post-match comments.
Everton realise they aren’t going to get any favours from the game’s authorities but when you’re playing in the Premier League, the fine margins ensure that you have to show enough quality to make your own luck and in this respect, a work in progress side still need to do more and they only started pushing here late on once the damage had already been done.
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