That’s more like it. We looked like us again and we popped Everton’s new manager bounce bubble. What this result means for our top four hopes remains to be seen. What it means for Everton’s survival hopes also remains to be seen. For now though, I’m just going to enjoy it because there hasn’t been much to smile about since the World Cup break.
There wasn’t much to smile about before it either, but things had definitely got worse so this stops the bleeding and with injured players on the way back there are reasons to be a bit more optimistic about the weeks ahead. I wasn’t even thinking about that last night though. Top four was not on my mind, the rest of the season was just not even an afterthought. Beating Everton was all that mattered and I wasn’t
I knew what Everton would do and there were no surprises. They played exactly how I thought they would and they played at the level I thought they would. Shite. That wasn't in doubt. We were never going to be outplayed by Everton regardless of how we performed. The question for me was whether we’d be able to create and then take enough chances to ensure we won the game. I’ll be completely honest, I had no idea if we would and there has been nothing in recent weeks to suggest that we would, so I had some trepidation.
My main worry going into this was we wouldn’t be able to break them down, that we’d waste whatever good chances we did create and we’d either be held to a 0-0 draw or we’d give something stupid away from a set-piece and lose. Thankfully none of that happened because we took two chances and got a slice of luck when we needed it from one of their set-pieces.
I may as well start with that, because it was the pivotal moment in the game and who knows, it might prove to be the pivotal moment in the whole season if we kick on from this. Time will tell on that and if we go and lay an egg at Newcastle this weekend then it’s back to square one, but if we did go on a bit of a run now we might look back at that mad 15 seconds or so as when everything changed for us.
We’d started the game really well and the opening 25 minutes we looked good. The shape was nice and compact, the work off the ball was good and we were winning a lot of second balls, and the passing was good too (except for Trent whose radar was way off early on). It wasn’t really translating into clear chances but you have to expect that against a team focused only on defending. You have to be patient but in our current run of form that’s easier said than done. We’re looking for that spark and we want it quickly. We don’t want to wait because confidence is such a fragile thing.
Klopp and the players all spoke about what a great week of training they’d had and how they couldn’t wait for the game so they could start to put things right, which of course they did. But what if that Tarkowski header had been a few inches to the right and gone in off the post? We’d started the game brightly and didn’t look like a team devoid of confidence, while the crowd had been bang up for it too. If that goes in though?
It’s a real sliding doors moment really I think. Everton had barely left their own half for 30 minutes or so but it had looked as though they’d weathered the storm and they were enjoying a reasonable little five minute spell that culminated in that effort against the post. At that moment if you’d asked Dyche how he thought it was going he’d no doubt have said “exactly as we drew it up”. Soak up pressure, give nothing away, wait for the set-pieces and try to capitalise on one. It was textbook Dyche.
But then the Red Arrows made their long awaited comeback. You all know how much I love a breakaway goal like that. There’s nothing better, they’re just the absolute fucking best goals. So exhilarating to watch, and this one is right up there with the best we’ve seen. If you freeze that picture when Darwin first picks the ball up, there’s just no way you could see that being a goal.
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