Deeney dishes out vengeance
Allardyce fuming at his Everton flops as...
IN the Watford boardroom, this victory must have been infused by the sweet scent of retribution. This club was riding high in the top half of the Premier League and troubling the top six when Everton took a sledgehammer to their forward momentum by pursuing then manager Marco Silva so vigorously.
These two teams have, in many ways, seen their seasons defined by the Silva episode and this was another afternoon where the Portuguese coach’s shadow loomed large.
Everton’s pursuit of Silva reached the point where a £15million compensation package was offered and rejected. Instead, they turned to Sam Allardyce and toil in an uneasy marriage of convenience, while Watford’s form fell off a cliff and they are now adapting to life under Javi Gracia, their eighth manager in less than four years.
Upon relieving Silva of his duties, Watford chastised Everton for an ‘unwarranted approach’ that ‘jeopardised the long-term future of the club.’ He is now in neither dugout, of course, but both clubs, it feels, are still to come to terms with the episode.
For Watford, this may, at last, have felt like closure. This victory took them six points clear of the drop zone and into the top half of the Premier League.
The winning goal took 79 minutes to arrive and, it has to be said, did not always appear likely during a poor game between two under-par sides. Watford captain Troy Deeney provided the inspiration, putting the end to a flowing move with a sharp first touch and belting finish. It was Deeney’s first goal in open play in the Premier League since April last year.
Everton cannot not say they were not warned. Moments earlier, Jordan Pickford had set the panic stations ringing when his kick deflected off Deeney and only the goalkeeper’s sharp reflexes spared Everton.
For Allardyce, this was another exhibit of his team’s limitations. After some haunting recent afternoons his defence was, at least, more stubborn here. Yet his starting line-up featured £152.5m of talent and £27m striker Cenk Tosun joined the fray in the second half.
The form book and team-sheets hinted this fixture might develop into something approaching entertainment. Watford have conceded the most Premier League home goals and Everton had leaked nine in their last two away outings, both in north London during heavy defeats by Tottenham and Arsenal.
When the two sides met at Goodison Park in December, it was one of the games of the season as David Unsworth’s Everton came from two goals down to defeat Silva’s Watford.
Yet the anticipated game of punch and counter-punch failed to materialise during a tepid first half. Everton’s flair players were set up in a rigid and conservative fashion, with Gylfi Sigurdsson reduced to tracking the threat of Gerard Deulofeu and Wayne Rooney sitting deep in central midfield.
Everton may have stabilised under Allardyce but remain in a dispiriting rut away from home, with just one victory on the road all season. Watford were barely better, demonstrating little of the verve they displayed in the recent demolition of Chelsea. Deulofeu was the biggest menace against his former team, but he disappeared through injury early in the second-half, while Richarlison, who began the season so brightly, is now without a goal since November and did not surface as an attacking force.
The two sides offered the miserable sum of one shot on target during the opening 45 minutes and even that from Oumar Niasse appeared to be intended as a low cross, taking a deflection and forcing a fine reaction save from Greek goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis.
In place of skill and ingenuity, the game developed a spiky edge. Watford felt Michael Keane’s lunge on Doucoure, sliding in hard and slightly over the ball, merited punishment from referee Anthony Taylor. It was a robust challenge and a different official might have taken action but Taylor did not award a free-kick.
In the second period, the two teams roused themselves. Sebastian Prodl headed wide from a corner. Idrissa Gueye curled in a high, hanging cross and Keane rose highest. Yet Keane, who produced one of his most assured displays in an Everton shirt, did not go for goal, instead directing his downwards header towards the onrushing Tom Davies in the six yard box, but the ball just eluded the midfielder.
Rooney offered glimpses of his enduring talent, whipping in a dangerous cross and then attempting a technically testing half volley that flew over the crossbar.
In the end it was Deeney, not Rooney, who grabbed the limelight.