WOLVES CATASTROPHIC DAY FOR SILVA Everton boss feline down as moggy invades the pitch
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EVERTON boss Marco Silva will have seen the scurrying black cat as a sign of bad luck.
His Toffees side certainly don’t need any misfortune. They are bad enough without it.
But the sight of a black cat on the pitch in the second half at Goodison at least gave their frustrated home fans some comic relief.
They needed it after watching Silva’s side suffer their 10th league defeat of the campaign a week after being dumped out of the FA Cup by Millwall.
Some might even argue the fleet- footed feline offered more threat in the danger areas than their team.
In England, the appearance of the animal is supposedly good luck, but not on the continent. “I don’t like black cats,” said Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo. “In Portugal it is bad luck.”
He will have liked everything else he watched on the pitch though, as his side put in another display to prove how well equipped they are to compete in the Premier League.
Wolves, at times, were wonderful but they didn’t even need to be at their best to solidify their seventh spot in the table.
Ruben Neves, Raul Jimenez and Leander Dendoncker got the goals that meant Andre Gomes’ super strike counted for nothing. “It is a growing process,” added Santo.
“It begun more than 18 months ago, same people, same players, trying to find solutions and improve. Seventy per cent of this team today was with us in the Championship.
“We don’t forget where we come from. We still have a long way to go. If you have the desire and hunger, you are always able to fight.”
Everton came into this looking for just their second back-to-back wins in the Premier League this season under Silva after a hardfought win at Huddersfield on Tuesday.
But they failed to build on it with the manager left to rue four goals conceded from free-kicks in a week after three last weekend at Millwall.
Silva said: “I’m the first one, if our opponents do something really special and they were really better than us, to be fair and give congratulations.
“But when I see how we lost the game, giving them everything so easily from the first minutes, they could score from anywhere.
“It was really tough for me, it was really tough for us as a team: it’s a tough moment for us to react.”
Leighton Baines, a fitness doubt before the game, looked off the pace and hauled down Matt Doherty in the area after seven minutes – Neves stepped up to score from the spot.
But then some magic from Gomes as the on-loan Barcelona ace took possession from Cenk Tosun burst into the area and fired a rocket into the top corner for his first Everton goal.
Everton’s set-piece woe hit again though – Michael Keane gave away a needless free-kick on Diogo Jota and Joao Moutinho whipped hipped it in before an unmarked nmarked Jimenez headed home. ome.
Jota’s mazy run n in the 66th minute left the Everton defence all over the place – his shot was blocked by Kurt
Zouma but the move got the goal it deserved as Den- doncker scored.
Then the black cat appeared.