Survival in our hands says Lamps...
JUST when it was starting to look like Everton would need a miracle to stay up, along came Manchester United.
At the moment, a fixture against Ralf Rangnick’s men 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 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. And the Merseysiders enjoyed a timely slice of luck here 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 Lindelof and forcing De Gea into a spectacular save.
But the Toffees ran themselves to a standstill, put their bodies on the line – and United found no reply.
Jordan Pickford did save well from Marcus Rashford and Cristiano Ronaldo in the early stages.
And the Everton goalkeeper flicked out an instinctive wrist in injury-time to prevent Ronaldo steering home an equaliser United didn’t deserve.
But De Gea’s verdict was damning: “We don’t score, we don’t even create proper chances to score.”
When told about his goalkeeper’s assessment, interim manager Rangnick (right) said: “I totally agree. If you don’t score in 95 minutes against a team who conceded three goals at Burnley, you can’t expect to get anything.
“For the first 25 minutes we were in full control and you could literally 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 stadium. They just defended in
econd half and we were not o break that wall down.”
ted went into the game with nsions of qualifying for the
pions League. k about delusions of grandeur.
e win in seven now for the Red s and they look on course to 3 points – their lowest total of
emier League era. k ten Hag might want to think
about becoming the side’s manager in nine years. could well be taking charge of iggest club in the Europa
rence League next season – hat’s if he’s lucky. ngnick added: “If you don’t goals in games like this, it will
ficult to qualify for Europe. I don’t see any connection at all between this performance and a new manager coming in. You can’t let anyone have that kind of alibi or excuse.
“All the players themselves should be eager to play European football but if we play like we did today we don’t deserve to qualify.”
United’s fans have been given a reality check since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
But even a travelling support that is usually raucous was stunned into silence by what their team served up. United are now investigating an incident at the end of the match where a mobile phone appeared to be thrown at Ronaldo.
Everton weren’t phoning it in yesterday, but in midweek, the spectre of relegation loomed large when they were beaten at Turf Moor, after Sean Dyche had told his Clarets they were playing a side who don’t know how to win.
The Toffees’ lack of confidence was clear in the opening stages here and early encouragement from the home fans was just starting to turn when Gordon struck shortly before the half-hour mark.
Lampard said: “I feel like we’ve been due a deflection and I was pleased it was Anthony because he loves the club.
“He feels it – no wonder the fans love him.
“I have to give a lot of credit to the lads. It isn’t easy after two defeats in a week to go again against a team that is fit and full of quality.
“Some people in the dressing room have been calculating how many points we need and looking at the table.
“But that means nothing to me. We absolutely know that it’s in our hands and this is just three points.”