Everton v Chavski

Sunday 2pm ko

So I'm on a roll with 2 in a row & actually looking forward to the next game.
Can we pinch a win ?... I think it's quite possible as the camp mood is high & Chavs are well.... chavvy, smelly, over-entitled twats.

1-0 but nervy & twitchy till the last kick in the 105th minute.

FTPL - UTFT - COYB

Not sure Garner and Onana will get back in the team tbf. Maybe they can each do a job off the bench for 10 mins at the end, to close out another win.

Everton 4 (DCL, Beto, Gemmill, Nevin OG) Chelsea 2 (Bumstead, Nevin OG)

Fuck the Premier League. End Football.

I was going to say something like, these are the worse times to be an Evertonian, after they start raising your expectations and then inevitabely take you back to reality, blah blah. But that isn't true at all is it? There are definitely worse times than when you've just won 8 out of the last 12 games, so yeah, fuck it, 4-1 to the toffees... Mark Pembridge, Gareth Farrelly, Claus Thomsen and Scott Gemmill. Nigel Spackman for them.

Goodison_Gringo wrote:I was going to say something like, these are the worse times to be an Evertonian, after they start raising your expectations and then inevitabely take you back to reality, blah blah. But that isn't true at all is it? There are definitely worse times than when you've just won 8 out of the last 12 games, so yeah, fuck it, 4-1 to the toffees... Mark Pembridge, Gareth Farrelly, Claus Thomsen and Scott Gemmill. Nigel Spackman for them.

I have a theory that I coped with lockdown and the pandemic better than many because I'm one of life's worriers. I'm an anxious fucker. So when I was finally presented with an existential threat that stopped me fretting pointlessly and irrationally about theoretical stuff, I sort of weirdly embraced it. This is it, I thought, bring it on, hunker down and make the best of it.

I have similar feelings about Everton's situation right now, my reaction has been similar. This is real, the points deduction has happened and the threat of being sued to financial oblivion hangs over us. So I've found that I've actually stopped worrying about it all and I'm carefree every time we play, because that's how my strange mind works. The United game felt a bit weird, the first game after we lost the points, but both games since then I've watched without anything like the usual fear and with, dare I say it, a sense of purpose, even belief? I'm sure it's to do with that feeling of right and wrong. Something like, we've been unfairly fucked over, but we'll create our own happy ending, like a cheesy Hollywood movie.

The fanbase feels united for the first time in years, that's important. All the players know their jobs. And these games against the money clubs keep coming, and in the context of FFP and the irony of one of those letters standing for "Fair" I like to think that when the monied classes come to town, it gives the lads even more motivation. I have confidence in the manager and the players while reminding myself that we are still a team of pretty limited ability. I just think we've got a shot, a puncher's chance, in every game we play these days. It's a nice feeling to have, especially during this run of difficult fixtures.

I find that I'm enjoying the experience of watching Everton again, of being an Evertonian, almost irrespective of our league position or financial situation, because we've been galvanised by something bigger. Obviously that's partly down to us regularly winning games but it's the sense of injustice that makes this different. Not sure I'm explaining this feeling particularly well to be honest, but we're all tribal to a degree and I feel like I belong to it again, and it's more than just a fanbase that I belong to now, it's a crusade. Modern football almost removes that sense of purpose for fans of clubs like ours whose ambition is reduced to just staying in the big league. Now, we have something tangible to fight for, and that's to shove their arbitrary FFP rules up their arses. For that reason I reckon surviving relegation this year, unlike last year when we were all just tired of it, will feel every bit as good as when we won the league.

Now after all that, watch us tamely roll over and lose 2-0 on Sunday with Pickford sent off in the 8th minute and DCL's leg falling off early in the second half.

The Newcastle game felt like the fans were pouring out the same kind of ‘righteous’ anger we did towards City when they got Lescott off us. For the next couple of seasons they turned up a Goodison and got absolutely bossed. Gordon being interchangeable with Lescott in this instance. I wonder if we’ll be as vocal and angry at 2pm on a Sunday against Chelsea but hopefully we can keep the momentum going.  I feel like it’ll either be a repeat of the Newcastle game or a repeat of the United game. Chelsea have enough firepower to do us some damage but are also ropey enough in defence that we could get some joy. Hopefully a united Everton will be too much for them and we take the chances we get.

Tonteau wrote:The Newcastle game felt like the fans were pouring out the same kind of ‘righteous’ anger we did towards City when they got Lescott off us. For the next couple of seasons they turned up a Goodison and got absolutely bossed. Gordon being interchangeable with Lescott in this instance. I wonder if we’ll be as vocal and angry at 2pm on a Sunday against Chelsea but hopefully we can keep the momentum going.  I feel like it’ll either be a repeat of the Newcastle game or a repeat of the United game. Chelsea have enough firepower to do us some damage but are also ropey enough in defence that we could get some joy. Hopefully a united Everton will be too much for them and we take the chances we get.

I'm hoping we can be as intimidating to Chelsea as we were to many teams at the end of last season ... I don't think they'll fancy that.

Despite the poor scoreline against Manure, I thought we played really well & importantly created loads of good chances... fingers crossed that the Barcodes performance means we now again know how to convert chances in front of the home fans ...

I think we'll have more good chances than them & to be Dyche for a minute, our xG will be much better ... so we can & should win this.

COYB

I think we are overlooking a key point. Whilst our league position is what it is, quite a few teams in the next few weeks will look at league position and be somewhat beguiled as to how much better we actually are.

Without that 10 point deduction we actually sit above Chelsea (on current season form to date) - over the last few weeks we are probably playing better. Suere we are in the league position we are in .... Dychje just has the players remembering where we actually are in the "playing pyramid" rather than the points pyramid.

Our biggest concern will be how we play against the teams immediately around us. Where we recognise we are better than we are and soft-pedal teams who actually are poorer and we come a cropper. If we can manage both sides of that same coin I have high hopes. That we will survive all points deductions.

I am hearing we might get 5 back suspended to be reapplied if we transgress. The PL have apparently already been informed that we are in schtuk so the penalty will be re-applied at the season end, which will allow the PL to demonstrate that they can identify, prosecute and penalise within the same season.

It has a certain elegance about ti the PL get the "swingeing" headline initially; they get to listen to fans and clubs concert and soften but knowing that the full penalty will subsequently applied. The rest of the league knows the relative size of penalties going forward (which actually is part of EFC's case that no there rule in the game has a sanction without a defined penalty - in other words they made this one up.)

Looks like Seamus has not recovered so Young drops back to the defence line... Garner back in which is great

COYB

HT 0-0

Luton winning against City so we are back in the drop zone as it stands

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUKEEEEE

DOBBBBBBIIIIIINNNNNN 2-0

Fuck YEAAAHHH   FT 2-0

UTFT

FTPL

What a week that was. UTFT

This is the most likeable Everton side for so long. Not just because we win a bit, but we fight, we always give 100% and no one gets an easy ride. COYB!!!!

Too easy. Sort of know how City fans feel now. When is someone going to give us a game?

4 points off a Europa League spot if it weren't for the Prem being bent.

Another great performance from the team, even though Chelsea were on top, especially in the first half. But, they kind of folded a bit once we scored.

Great to see Dobbin score, and equally great to see his teammates celebrating with him as if they had scored!

Another excellent article from The Athletic, which remains light years ahead of anything else I read in terms of sober and intelligent sports journalism.

It's behind a subscription paywall so I've copied and pasted it below. Love the Occam's Razor reference here.


Sean Dyche has turned Everton’s brittleness into brick – it’s his greatest managerial feat

“When I finished as a player and went into coaching, my first goal was to give the players something better than I thought I had (as a player),” said Sean Dyche. “I’ve never lost sight of that.”

It is not just the players, but Everton as a whole, who are being treated better than they have been before.

Three wins in a row, three consecutive clean sheets, six goals scored and none conceded over nine days. But for last month’s contested 10-point deduction, Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat of Chelsea would have put Everton 10th in the Premier League, three points off the European places.

“Why are you saying that to me?,” was Dyche’s mock exasperation when the above nugget was passed along. “It’s been a lovely afternoon without talking about where we would be.”

But this is significant. Here is a club who avoided relegation by the thickness of a sweet wrapper in the past two seasons, who are operating under smothering financial restraints and who were slapped with the largest sporting sanction in Premier League history.

Yet the punchline are punching above their weight.

Turning around Everton since his January appointment is Dyche’s best managerial achievement.

Yes, he may have taken Burnley to two Premier League promotions in three years and into Europe, finishing seventh in 2017-18. But while that was a slow burn, building that European place on years of good practice having been appointed in 2012. Within 12 months of replacing Frank Lampard, Dyche has inserted iron rods into foundations which were built from talcum at Goodison Park.

Look at the off-field distractions which are threatening to derail Erik ten Hag’s tenure at Manchester United — Dyche’s Everton spell has seen him dispense with similar issues before breakfast.

In this regard, his attitude stands him in good stead. Dyche is the Premier League’s managerial equivalent of Occam’s Razor — that if a problem has multiple solutions, the simplest answer will virtually always be the best. Shore up the defence. Sign players with the right mentality. Give individuals clear instructions.

This is no criticism. The beauty of Dyche’s teams is a mathematical beauty, an elegance to their speed and simplicity.

They may have played the most long balls in the Premier League, but that is reductive. Beto’s third goal against Newcastle United on Thursday came at the end of a 29-pass move. Everton are capable of style.

According to Opta, Everton have the highest direct speed in the league — moving the ball just over two metres towards the opposition goal for every second they are in possession.

“We are clear-minded when we talk about direct football,” Dyche said this season. “Can we turn and play forwards first? It’s not direct as in ‘just kick the ball forward’.” Dele Alli, Everton’s England midfielder currently continuing his recovery from injury, has likened it to the style of the early Mauricio Pochettino era Tottenham teams he played in.

An example came seven minutes in yesterday.

After defusing a Chelsea attack, Jarrad Branthwaite and Vitalii Mykolenko combined rapidly to beat the initial press. With the ball played into a pocket of space in midfield, Idrissa Gueye received it on his trailing foot to stay clear of Conor Gallagher. Two quick touches, and possession was spread to James Garner, who continued the drive upfield before spreading the play to Jack Harrison, whose driven cross narrowly missed Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Six players involved, 60 metres gained, in just over six seconds.

Dyche’s attacking philosophy is about changing the picture — and in this sense he is more Jackson Pollock than Hans Holbein, throwing paint forward in globules rather than employing painstaking brushstrokes.

On several occasions, Everton attempted quick free kicks to Dwight McNeil to catch Chelsea on the hop; ball boys were primed for the option of doing similar from a throw-in.

“Can you change the feel of it? Can you play quickly?,” Dyche told The Coaches Voice this year. “We’re not against playing it out from the back, as long as it’s done quickly and they (the opponents) aren’t organised, to kick it early to change the field while it’s expansive.”

Dyche does not appear to be a man in tune with the supernatural — but it was as if with those words he had foreseen Everton’s opening goal yesterday.

Mykolenko, who has improved immeasurably in possession since last season, appeared to instinctively shape to kick it long when he corralled the ball in his own penalty area. Instead, mind won out over body, with the left-back threading a pass into the path of the breaking McNeil.

The winger’s verticality is one of his best assets, and he drove rapidly up the pitch before finding Calvert-Lewin. The speed of the attack created its own space, Chelsea defender Levi Colwill forced into indecision by its pace. Though the striker’s shot was blocked, the rebound found Abdoulaye Doucoure — who calmly passed the ball back across goal into the far corner. Despite a record of lacking composure in front of goal, since Dyche took over, no Premier League midfielder has scored more goals than Doucoure’s 11.

It was simple — and beautiful.

But just as Dyche has whetted Everton’s attacking edge, the traditional strengths remain.

Everton came into this game with the Premier League’s highest expected goals (xG) from set pieces figure at 7.65, and with their seven goals from such situations only trailing Arsenal. They now have another, after Chelsea cleared a stoppage-time corner as far as Lewis Dobbin — they failed to repel set pieces all match — and he rifled in a first-time shot for his first Premier League goal.

Dyche sees beauty in simplicity too.

“I was most pleased because it was just a really authentic reaction,” he said of the 20-year-old’s goal celebration. “Everyone nowadays wants to dance or some nonsense. He just ran to the corner, slid on his knees, and said, ‘Have that!’.”

It is hard to escape the sense that Everton are increasingly a team made in their manager’s image — and are better for it. At the start of the season, Everton were winning the xG battle in games rather than taking the points. By sticking to their principles, both are now coming their way.

“You’ve got to be consistent,” said Dyche. “The way that I work, the way the staff work, we have a consistency — whether wins or losses, ups and downs — to say, ‘No, this is what we’re doing’.”

At one point in the first half yesterday, Dyche squared up to Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella, angered at the visitors not putting the ball out after an injury to Branthwaite. He did not take a backward step — opposite number Pochettino stepping in to play peacemaker.

“We shall not be moved,” sang the Goodison crowd at full time.

This is a manager, a group of players and a fanbase locked together in a refusal to compromise. Dyche’s work has been in turning brittleness into brick.

That was a wonderful read. I got goosebumps reading that!