Everton is more equipped to take on Man Town
Everton eventually took a late lead and clung onto it to earn a fantastic three points at Crystal Palace following a highly tumultuous contest.
Given that the Blues had not been able to maintain the lead they had taken early in their match against Brighton, this was a highly significant victory.
Strangely, the match this afternoon went very much the same way, with Vitalii Mykolenko scoring first, just as he did the previous weekend.
The Toffees held onto their lead for a while and had many more decent opportunities before Jarrad Branthwaite’s foul on Eberechi Eze resulted in a penalty kick, which Eze converted.
After a protracted delay, the incident was deemed not to be a foul, and the Palace player was booked even though Palace thought they should have had another with Eze and Branthwaite again engaged.
After Mykolenlo had gone close to score again, Abdoulaye Doucoure gave Everton their lead minutes after the restart, giving the visitors another lead that they likely deserved overall. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.
But the Blues were unable to hold on once again, and the Eagles leveled the score again when Osuane Edouard pushed the ball past Jordan Pickford following a painful mix-up between the defense and the goalkeeper.
In stark contrast to what I had projected in my match preview, it was at moments an exciting encounter that was interesting to watch for any neutral.
As the match progressed, it appeared as though Everton would lose for the second week in a row and, although holding a sizable lead, might only be able to settle for a point rather than three.
But after addressing his use of replacements in games this week, Sean Dyche excelled by substituting Idrissa Gueye, who scored a third goal after Doucoure had sent him through.
Though I doubt that was the manager’s motivation, it doesn’t really matter because the Toffees were ahead once again.
On this occasion, they persevered in the face of a late Palace free-kick and added another impressive away victory to their Brentford triumphs.
We now have an additional international break before Everton returns to action on November 26 when Manchester United visits.
