Everton’s pride
Richarlison has the edge in five-goal thriller
When Richarlison began his Everton career with two goals against Wolves at Molineux, this was the sort of explosive impact the club must have expected to see more often.
He had scored only twice on Merseyside since December but, 13 months after that dramatic debut and with the Brazil flag flying from an executive box packed with friends and family, he matched that tally in an eventful afternoon that indicated Everton can assume Wolves’ title as the best of the rest in the Premier League.
Richarlison made a slow start to the season, which manager Marco Silva attributed to his summer commitments at the Copa America, but it was consigned to the past yesterday. If few Brazil internationals are booked for celebrating a League Cup goal against Lincoln, the £40million winger was on Wednesday. His manager and mentor, Silva, who had substituted Richarlison in his previous two league games, felt that strike was the morale boost that kick-started his campaign.
“He needs good performances to win more confidence,” Silva said. “The way he celebrated the last goal against Lincoln shows he needs these kinds of moments. We are talking about a fantastic football player and a fantastic boy. He is the spirit inside our dressing room. He started the first game against Crystal Palace after [just] 13 days working with us. We cannot do miracles.”
Yet if Everton’s victory was secured by a 2018 buy, their 2019 recruitment drive proved crucial to suggest they are stronger for their spending. Silva unleashed £70million of signings, with Fabian Delph, Alex Iwobi and Moise Kean all making their full Premier League debuts for the club.
Delph was influential and excellent in midfield. Iwobi, who averaged a goal every 10 games for Arsenal, answered his manager’s call to become more prolific on Merseyside by scoring for the second time in five days.
“Fabian and Alex know the Premier League,” added Silva. “For them, nothing is new; just that they are playing now in our blue shirt.”
He believes that Everton have acquired leaders who helped them recover after twice conceding equalisers. They responded in a way they might not have done before. “In some moments last season, we didn’t show that,” he said. “For us to react, it was really difficult and we lost our confidence so fast.”
Instead, the Portuguese manager with much to regret was Nuno Espirito Santo. Only Wolves and Watford are yet to win in the Premier League and, after three respectable draws, his side were unusually error-prone, losing their unbeaten record and then their discipline as they ended with 10 men. Three of Wolves’ six yellow cards, including both of Willy Boly’s, were for fouls on Richarlison. They had no answer to him
“We didn’t start very good,” Nuno accepted. “We should not be happy with the mistakes we made. When we score two times, we should do better defensively.”
But Wolves were the architects of their own downfall. Two who got an assist were then culpable for a goal a few minutes later, Adama Traore failing to track Iwobi and Boly being outjumped by Richarlison. Captain Conor Coady was first to err, a former Liverpool player aiding Everton as two teams who had mustered only three previous league goals between them got as many in 12 minutes of mayhem. Coady’s stray back-pass played Rui Patricio into trouble. The stretching goalkeeper’s clearance struck Kean and fell for Richarlison to finish.
Everton captain Seamus Coleman was in similarly generous mood as Traore’s cross bounced off him for Romain Saiss to level. Everton responded with Iwobi’s second headed goal in a week coming from Gylfi Sigurdsson’s fine cross.
After an impasse for an hour, with Jordan Pickford making a terrific save from Patrick Cutrone, the drama continued.
“The only thing I didn’t like was the two goals we conceded,” said Silva. Set-piece frailties have been a theme of his reign and Everton allowed Boly to flick on Ryan Bennett’s long throw for Raul Jimenez to finish. Yet Boly then let Richarlison head in Lucas Digne’s cross.
Wolves looked tired and frayed, as though their Europa League efforts were taking a toll in their 10th game of the season, but Nuno rather strangely insisted: “I have more than 60 players available. There is no manager with so many options.”