Everton at low Jebb after young gun strikes
SHEFFIELD United teenager Daniel Jebbison scored just seven minutes into his first Premier League start to put a huge dent in Everton’s hopes of European football.
The Canadian-born forward, aged 17 years and 309 days, became the competition’s youngest scorer on his full debut and it is doubtful whether he will find the net with an easier chance against a static home defence in the 1-0 victory.
Earlier this season, Jebbison was on loan at National League North Chorley and only got his first taste of first-team football with the Blades as a 65th-minute substitute last weekend.
But his goal was enough to consign Carlo Ancelotti’s side to a ninth home defeat, equalling the club’s worst record from 1950-51 and 1993-94, with one match still to come at Goodison against Wolves on Wednesday.
And it almost certainly ended their chances of European football as they remain eighth, three points behind Tottenham and West Ham with a vastly inferior goal difference. Since
Christmas Everton have lost at home to the likes of Newcastle, Fulham, Burnley but going down to an already relegated Sheffield United, whose second away win of the campaign still left them 18 points behind 17th-placed Brighton, was a new low.
Securing two wins from the last ten league matches tells its own story for Everton as even the returning James Rodriguez failed to spark a response.
Jebbison did not take long to make his mark, although the ease with which he was allowed to score will have surprised him.
With Enda Stevens penned in on the visitors’ left, the ball was worked to Jack Robinson and he skipped past Richarlison and Michael Keane before driving a low cross to the far post where the unmarked Jebbison slid in.