Slam Dunk as Brazilian strikes it rich again
POOR Lewis Dunk feared the worst. Of all the moments and all the places to make a mistake, why here and why now?
Up in Goodison Park’s directors’ box, England head coach Gareth Southgate was watching.
Brighton’s central defender has been a model of consistency so this brain freeze — a pass into no man’s land — was unexpected. What he couldn’t have envisaged was his error being punished so spectacularly.
As soon as the ball had left Dunk’s foot, it was signal for one man to spring to life.
Richarlison, the game’s outstanding performer, went through the gears like a big cat on the scent of prey. Once he locked onto the target, there was only going to be one outcome.
Richarlison has quickly established hi mself as t he new darli ng of Goodison Park and here the bond strengthened further.
Off he went, slaloming around Shane Duffy and dummying Brighton goalkeeper Mat Ryan to score his second of the afternoon and secure three points for Everton.
It was a super goal. Evertonians were starved of entertainment last season but the famine is ending and they now have a manager ger in Marco Silva who is commmitted to playing attractive football and, in Richarlison, they have a player who can get them out of their seats.
In many ways, he was doing it from the first whistle. Everton dominated ed the opening exchanges and could have been two goals l up within the first 10 minutes but Gylfi Sigurdsson’s squandered two chances, scuffing one shot then firing another into the side netting. Brighton could not keep up.
So it came as no surprise when Everton broke the deadlock with a fine goal. From a Brighton corner, Sigurdsson scuttled upfield, exchanged passes with Bernard on the left flank, before threading a ball into Richarlison, who did the rest, fizzing a drive past Ryan.
Such was the home crowd’s appreciation for the strike — Richarlison’s fifth of the campaign — there was an extra round of applause as it was replayed on the giant screen in the corner of the stadium.
If that was sublime, though, the cheap way they squandered their advantage was ridiculous.
Another Brighton corner caused the problem. Everton were too slow to react as a short pass was ushered to Solly March and his hanging cross in the area enabled Dunk to outjump Kurt Zouma and plant a header past the exposed Jordan Pickford.
Conceding such avoidable goals will be the thing that holds Everton’s progress back — they have only kept two clean sheets so far — but the one aspect they have in their favour is they always look like scoring now and so it proved early in the second half.
‘The only thing I didn’t like was in the corner when they scored,’ said Silva. ‘It was our best performance of the season. Richarlison played very well.’
Silva’s words during the interval must have been sharp as Everton hurtled out of the blocks; Idrissa Gueye struck the base of the post with fierce left-foot shot in the 47th minute and Theo Walcott failed to get on the end of Bernard’s cutback from the follow up.
No matter; three minutes later and they had the lead once more. Coleman’s strike raced past Ryan from 25 yards but the captain will be well aware of the role Andre Gomes played, as the Portuguese’s constant harrying of Beram Kayal carved out the opening. Coleman C had come in for criticism c following his performance at Manchester United last Sunday a and there was a fair slice o of attitude in his ce celebration, as raced tow towards the Gwladys Street stand with his hand cupped b behind hi d hi his ear. ‘Apart from that moment, I thought Coleman performed better,’ said Silva. ‘His physical condition is growing; his confidence is growing. It will give good feelings for him.’
Coleman’s goal broke Brighton’s resistance and they were seen off once and for all when Richarlison, with a little assistance from the hapless Dunk, provided the grand finale.
Chris Hughton made no excuses and simply expressed his appreciation.
‘We got ourselves back in the game at 1-1,’ said Hughton. ‘But we were up against a very good team who will push the top six and we made too many errors to come away with something. Richarlison was a good player when he was at Watford and my view hasn’t changed. He has a bright future.’
Sentiments with which nobody was going to disagree.