Doubts, worry and creeping fear on a rotten day for Everton
BY THE end, it was just like it had been. The home supporters were streaming for the exits long before the final whistle, the manager was searching frantically for answers that would never come and the team was in disarray. Everton hoped this would be the day when they preserved their place in the Premier League but, during 90 chaotic minutes, the momentum they had painstakingly built during the last fortnight had been checked to such an extent they move into the final week with fear creeping all over them.
For the nightmare to become a reality, Leeds must go to Brentford next Sunday and win, Burnley need two points from their remaining two fixtures and Everton have to lose to Crystal Palace and Arsenal. From that permutation, the one you cannot foresee is Thomas Frank’s side losing.
Brentford, at the end of what has been a super first Premier League campaign, are growing in confidence and they played with ruthless efficiency when Everton’s 19-year-old central defender Jarrad Branthwaite was sent off for a professional foul on Ivan Toney in the 18th minute.
Deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 were turned into a 3-2 win that presents them with an opportunity to finish in the top half but, for Frank Lampard, the nagging feeling of what could — and maybe should — have been will persist until their anxieties are banished.
Lampard was adamant that the game — and, effectively, the season — was changed when VAR Darren England did not feel that on-field referee Michael Oliver needed to look at an incident in which Mads Bech Sorensen grabbed at Richarlison’s shirt to such an extent that you could see the Brazilian’s bare chest.
‘I don’t want a double fine, do you know what I mean?’ said Lampard, with some gallows humour.
‘The decision is either right or it’s wrong and if a referee can’t see it clearly or they’re in the wrong position and they get the benefit of someone else, they don’t have to tell them about a benefit of doubt. Is a shirt pull a foul? Yes. Is it in the box? Yes. It’s a penalty.
‘We are looking at potentially going to 2-0 with 11 men and it is a different game.’
As Goodison Park howled for the spot kick, the game continued. Brentford cleared their lines and Toney got the wrong side of Branthwaite, forcing a tangle of legs and a push in the back. Out came Oliver’s red card and in went a pin to the home crowd’s optimism.
It is a difficult task for Lampard at present, knowing the need to remain upbeat for a squad with notoriously brittle confidence, but even he would have acknowledged the stadium at the end bore no resemblance to the one at the start of the day.
Once again, Evertonians had turned up in their thousands to greet the team and the positivity inside the stadium before kick-off would not have been surpassed had silverware been on the line. The old place was bouncing and there was an unmistakable confidence the job would get done.
Feeding off the energy, Everton swarmed all over opponents whose nickname is the Bees and the early goal that the locals demanded almost came via Richarlison in the fourth minute, when he headed wide after Anthony Gordon’s shot was parried by David Raya.
Richarlison was in the thick of things throughout, volleying wide in the next attack, and then again in the 10th minute when Everton did secure the lead. He got a touch to Gordon’s free-kick but CalvertLewin had the last word and was seen mouthing to referee Michael Oliver: ‘My goal!’
With their tails up, it was impossible to see how Everton would not go on and do what was required but, having lost a man, they were always swimming against the tide. Brentford, Lampard conceded, were excellent for long periods and showed why they are upwardly mobile.
Everton sneaked into half-time with a lead, Richarlison converting from 12 yards after another Bech Sorensen foul, to restore hope after Seamus Coleman had previously diverted Yoane Wissa’s shot past Jordan Pickford, but it was not an advantage you gave them great hope of protecting. So it proved. In the second half, Brentford kept switching their formation and Everton fell deeper and deeper until they cracked with Wissa’s near-post header looping over Pickford, after Richarlison failed to follow his run, before Rico Henry completed the turnaround.
The hosts’ defending was naive once more, Gordon switched off momentarily to allow Henry to convert Christian Norgaard’s cross. Previously, Everton had conceded three goals in seven home matches under Lampard — here it was three in 27 minutes.
To make matters worse, substitute Salomon Rondon was sent off for a wild lunge at Henry — this meaning Everton had two red cards for the first time in a game since October 2007 — and he apologised to the crowd as he made his way from the field.
A miserable end, then, to a rotten day for Everton. Lampard was quick to stress everything remains in their hands and a good display against Crystal Palace should be enough. Yet, still, doubt persists — and where there is doubt, there is worry. In keeping with the season, it couldn’t be any other way. EVERTON (3-4-2-1): Pickford 6; Coleman 6 (Rondon 84min), Holgate 6, Branthwaite 5; Iwobi 6, Doucoure 5, Gomes 4 (Kenny 72, 5.5), Mykolenko 6; Gordon 6 (Gray 72, 6), Richarlison 7; Calvert-Lewin 5. Scorers: Calvert-Lewin 10, Richarlison 45+1 (pen). Booked: Doucoure. Sent off: Branthwaite, Rondon. Manager: Frank Lampard 6. BRENTFORD (4-3-3): Raya 7; Ajer 7 (Dasilva 59, 6), Jansson 7, Bech Sorensen 4 (Janelt 46, 6), Henry 8; Jensen 7, Norgaard 7, Eriksen 7; WISSA 8.5 (Roerslev 75), Toney 8, Mbeumo 8. Scorers: Coleman 37 (og), Wissa 62, Henry 64. Booked: Sorensen, Ajer, Norgaard. Manager: Thomas Frank 7. Referee: Michael Oliver 6. Att: 38,819.