"He, for me, at the moment, is the best English centre-half we have that is playing regularly."
That was what Danny Murphy had to say about James Tarkowski following his impressive performance against Crystal Palace. Tarkowski, Frank Lampard's first summer signing and a crucial initial step in his project to rebuild the Blues, has enjoyed a solid start to his career on Merseyside.
On Saturday, he was excellent. The defender, who teammates refer to as 'dad', as they also do with Conor Coady, fought to defend his teammates and protect his box. His involvement in the first half 'drop ball controversy' and his crunching tackle on Jean-Philippe Mateta seconds after being booked were key in this game. They make it into this overview of some of those moments that may have been missed from most assessments of an important 90 minutes for Everton.
