JORDAN AD
In- form Che finds way to punish Pick ford
ONWARD AND UPWARD: Ward- Prowse hits the Saints’ opener
A STRIKER called Everton scored a deflected goal past Jordan Pickford as the England goalkeeper was finally punished a week after the Merseyside derby.
The league- leading Toffees were well ell and truly outclassed by a brilliant Southampton side.
Che Adams, whose middle name is Everton after his father, netted the second as Ralph Hasenhuttl marked the first anniversary of the mother of all home defeats – 9- 0 to Leicester last season – with a one- sided St Mary’s win.
Everton’s first defeat of the season highlighted a lack of discipline and squad depth for Carlo Ancelotti’s side as they were squeezed out of the game by the high- pressing Saints.
Without the suspended Richarlison and injured Seamus Coleman, the visitors lacked dynamism going forward.
James Rodriguez did not look fully fit while Ben Godfrey suffered a nightmare full debut at right- back.
And Lucas Digne became the second Toffees player sent off in as many games for a horrible scything tackle on Kyle Walker- Peters.
Dominic Calvert- Lewin, who had scored in all five of Everton’s Premier League games this season, showed his frustration with a late challenge on Jannik Vestergaard.
This was the kind of fixture against an in- form Southampton to show if the Goodison Park team – who had beaten Tottenham, West Brom, Crystal Palace
and Brighton contenders.
But as the clocks went back, time ran out on their fine start and instead there were worrying signs of the old Everton.
Rodriguez was passed fit to play after his own derby injury but the Colombian struggled after the break.
His first- half free- kick and a pass to Gylfi Sigurdsson which saw the Everton skipper hit the bar were his only contributions.
He was not alone. James Ward- Prowse celebrated his goal with a golf swing but
– were genuine top- four the whole under par.
“It was not a good day, it was not a good performance,” Ancelotti admitted.
“We didn’t play well, Southampton were better than us and they deserved to win.”
The Italian was less fluent when asked about his lack of options from the bench.
“I don’t want to talk about the transfer market,” he said.
But Southampton were
Everton team was
OH MY JORD: Pickford is disappointed after Saints’ first goal
( above) and is helpless to stop Adams’ deflected shot going in ( left) good as Everton were bad. Pickford – the villain last week for possibly ending Virgil van Dijk’s season – saved a long- range shot from Oriol Romeu after 27 minutes but 24 second later Ward- Prowse had exchanged passes with Danny Ings to open the scoring.
Adams waited 30 games to net for the Saints but he has now scored in consecutive games against Chelsea and Everton.
This time the tireless Ings provided the cross before the former Birmingham striker’s shot was deflected in by Sigurdsson.
“Che had gone through some tough times here but he kept working,” said Hasenhuttl.
Any hope of an unlikely away comeback was ended by Digne chasing down Walker- Peters to bring the Saints full- back down at the second attempt.