TOFFEES HERO EARNS HUGE

JUST when it was starting to look like Everton would need a miracle to stay up along came Manchester United.

Playing Ralf Rangnick’s men at the moment really is a gift from the gods.

As the home fans poured out of Goodison Park at the final whistle they may have been tempted to nip into St Luke’s church to offer up a prayer of thanks.

Everton will have to perform better than this to still be in the Premier League next season but Frank Lampard will take his points any way he can get them.

The Merseysiders got a huge break when Anthony Gordon’s speculative first-half strike took a huge deflection off Harry Maguire to leave David De Gea stranded. Their only other shot on target came courtesy of another deflection, Richarlison’s effort clipping Victor Lindeof and forcing keeper De Gea into a spectacular save.

But the Toffees ran themselves to a standstill, put their bodies on the line and United had no response. Jordan Pickford saved well from Marcus Rashford and Cristiano Ronaldo in the early stages. And the Everton keeper flicked out an instinctive wrist in injury-time to prevent Ronaldo steering home an equaliser United didn’t deserve.

“We don’t score, we don’t even create proper chances,” was De Gea’s damning verdict.

When told about his goalkeeper’s brutal assessment, Rangnick said: “I totally agree. If you don’t score in 95 minutes against a team who conceded three goals at Burnley then you can’t expect to get anything.

“For the first 25 minutes we were in full control, you could feel they were crumbling.

“But we did not take advantage of that. Their first shot on goal – a deflected shot – changed the game and it changed the atmosphere in the