Toffees lack bite as they blow chance to pull clear
FRANK LAMPARD paced and prowled and kept looking at the floor. The clock was creeping towards full time and Everton were inching towards safety.
A point wasn’t the worst result in the world. Another positive was a second clean sheet in three games, but there was some tension and frustration and, after keeping this unbeaten sequence going at Watford, Lampard felt it necessary to spell out the situation.
Victory would have soothed so many headaches but when you consider how the table looked 10 days ago compared to how it does this morning, Everton’s predicament has significantly improved and that was not lost on Lampard.
‘Look, let’s have it right, it wasn’t the best game in the world to watch, was it?’ Lampard noted with refreshing honesty. ‘The players were frustrated but I told them we’ve just taken seven points from the last nine. If you had offered us that before, we’d have bitten your hand off.’
Everton’s fate remains in their own hands. Leeds crumbling against Chelsea has put them on the brink — should Leeds lose to Brighton on Saturday and Everton beat Brentford 24 hours later, the job will be done.
Some will feel it should have been done here. News filtered through of Mason Mount’s opener at Leeds and it only added to the relentless positivity that was being shown in the away end.
It is amazing what a cause to pursue can do for a fan base; such was the passion on show, it’s difficult to imagine the Evertonians would have been any noisier had their team been pursuing a trophy. Through challenging times, their support has been unfailing.
But what of their team? Lampard stressed on Tuesday that the quickest route back towards danger would be complacency. He was anxious about the test Watford presented, even if their fate is sealed.
Here was a different challenge. Watford were never going to give Everton the chance to sit in and wreak havoc on the counter, as they had done in those successes against Chelsea and Leicester. Could they impose themselves and set the tone?
For the opening 45 minutes, the answer was firmly ‘no’. Though Lampard’s side were never subjected to pressure — the best it got for Watford was when Seamus Coleman misjudged a backpass and Jordan Pickford plunged to his right to avert a calamity — Everton couldn’t dominate.
Clearly, they had identified Watford’s left side as a weak link but each time Alex Iwobi or Anthony Gordon scuttled down the flank, there was a lack of composure and accuracy with the final ball. Stood with his arms tightly folded, Lampard fidgeted whenever a move broke down.
Everton did get themselves into decent positions but shots from Vitalii Mykolenko and Demarai Gray didn’t result in Ben Foster working too hard. This had to change after the interval.
It did, just not enough to get three points. As the volume was cranked up behind Pickford’s goal, so too did the speed at which Everton played and Richarlison, once of this parish, should have scored in the 52nd minute.
His turn was sharp but as he worked an opening he wanted to take it on his right rather than his left and the Brazilian could only flick his effort towards Foster.
Still, it was a change in momentum and, 10 minutes later, a better chance arrived after Gray received the ball in the area but his finish lacked precision. Gray’s grimace told you he should have done better. When Michael Keane then headed straight at Foster from Iwobi’s corner, you began to wonder whether Everton were going to pass up an incredible opportunity.
Watford’s play was nondescript and there was little ambition.
One wonders what Rob Edwards, the incoming manager from Forest Green, will make of the squad he will inherit. Watford have good people working at the club but the squad is bereft of any magic.
‘They have appointed a talented young coach,’ said Roy Hodgson. ‘I wish him every success.’
At least there was some gallows humour. ‘We’ve won the ball!’ the home crowd sang, followed by: ‘We’ll give it back!’ They were right. You had to admire them in a charmless situation, but they had called it right. They were apt words for that kind of night.