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Committed and loyal, talented and misunderstood outside of Goodison Park, Richarlison has cemented himself in the hearts of Evertonians, especially this season when he rose to the fore as the warrior who scored many of the goals that assured the Blues' Premier League safety
Starting with the ill-advised appointment of Rafael Benitez, a confluence of factors almost dragged this grand old club out of the top flight before Everton's terrific fans stepped in. A review of season 2021-22.
Just like that “That Game” in 1994, Everton refused to lie down and over 45 minutes that are now irrevocably woven into Goodison folklore, amid an atmosphere that somehow surpassed those that have stunned neutral observers in recent weeks, they dug deep and pulled off a thrilling comeback victory.
Everton didn't allow a disappointingly flat display to turn into disaster but this goalless draw did reek of an opportunity missed
Ask anyone who has travelled to watch the Toffees in any era of living memory and they will no doubt say they have never seen anything like the show of support put on by Everton's fans at the King Power Stadium and the players responded to lift the club out of the relegation zone
Heroics at either of the pitch gave the Blues the edge they needed to eke out a 1-0 victory over the reigning European Champions, one that brought them to within two points of Burnley and Leeds United above them in the table and kept survival in the hands of Frank Lampard and his players.
Richarlison has scored far better goals for club and country but, in the final reckoning of this tortuous season, he might not score many more important ones than his 50th for Everton.
Much has been made of the mentality of the Blues’ players as they have sunk like a stone to the depths of the table since making that fine start to the campaign way back in August but it is to their enormous credit that despite a short turnaround from the pain of a shock defeat at 9:30pm on Wednesday evening to a 12:30 kick-off today they managed to turn in a terrific performance and grind out three vital points.
If Frank Lampard had half a dozen more players with Richarlison and Gordon’s attitude, the club might not be staring at the very real threat of relegation. There again, you can have all the spirit in the world but if the players around you simply aren’t good and are making catastrophic mistakes on a weekly basis, it’s going to be very hard to win matches in the Premier League
This famous old ground has played host to some raucous atmospheres but surely never has the Old Lady quaked to such a ferocious din and for as long as it did tonight.
Goodison Park isn’t a fortress against fear, nor can it compensate for basic failings on the pitch. Evertonians have brought their passion and their voices but for this grand old team to be rescued from the catastrophe of relegation, it's now going to take the players digging deep themselves
From the standpoints of morale and goal difference alone, this has the potential to be a costly result. Frank Lampard's biggest job this week could simply be keeping morale up
The spirit of the game is being eroded by meddling and incompetence amid poor implementation of supposed “technological advancements”
Whether through incompetence or something more worryingly sinister, Chris Kavanagh was once again at the centre of bitter controversy at Goodison Park where Everton were denied the chance to snatch a deserved point for their efforts against League-leaders, Manchester City
Not for the first time in recent years, the root of Everton's ills lies in a void of a midfield that is cripplingly short on options and continues to be let down by one of its most high-profile signings.
In a cauldron of noise, banners and flags, the Blues' players rose to the occasion to beat Leeds United in convincing fashion at Goodison Park
A harrowing defeat on Tyneside will have left the new manager under no illusions as to how difficult this job might be in the short term
He may only have had five days with his new charges but Frank Lampard, imbued with an inner confidence of his own, has visibly restored an enormous amount of self-belief in Everton’s players and it coursed through this rousing FA Cup performance, one which ultimately overwhelmed Brentford and emphatically steered Everton into the fifth round.
"All’s well that ends well" might be premature but Everton certainly finished the winter window on an upbeat note. It would be naïve to simply sweep under the carpet the events of the past few weeks but some comfort should be taken from the fact that the hierarchy finally appear to be listening
Picking managers is a fiendishly difficult task in the high-pressure, high-stakes environment of Europe’s top leagues. Sometimes you just need to assess the risks and go with the candidate that gives you the best chance of succeeding. Farhad Moshiri and the Board have done that with Frank Lampard, a man who will add youth and fresh ideas after six demoralising months at Goodison Park
A repeat of the passion and the high-octane football that delivered Duncan Ferguson a famous win against Chelsea two years ago wasn't enough today to earn a badly-needed win
As he approaches the sixth anniversary of his first investment in Everton, Farhad Moshiri finds his grandiose Everton project on track in terms of the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock but in considerable disarray on the pitch. His ambitions face multiple challenges after a series of failed managerial appointments and massive waste on unsuccessful signings but none of them are insurmountable with an incremental, considered plan of action. In the radio silence from the Monaco-based billionaire, however, it's impossible to know if that's likely to happen
Reports that Everton have made Roberto Martinez their first choice to succeed Rafael Benitez are crystallising the debate around Bill Kenwright, the long-time Everton Chairman who has made a habit of mining the Blues' past to resolve current problems
As many predicted, Farhad Moshiri lost his high-stakes gamble with the appointment of Rafael Benitez. The Spaniard's removal arguably came too late but at least it's done.
Benitez’s time at Everton has been up for a while now; that Farhad Moshiri has waited this long to end this farce has merely sacrificed precious points and prolonged the fans’ frustration. The former Liverpool boss surely cannot survive this.
A shambles at the back due to an inexplicable team selection motivated by the manager's spite rather than pragmatism, Everton succumbed to another defeat under Rafael Benitez who appears to have no idea how to organise this side into a winning outfit.
Amazingly, despite being thrown to the lions, a youthful Blues' team turned in one of the most pride-inspiring performances yet seen under Rafael Benitez and not only held the reigning European champions to a draw but with a bit more composure in the final third could have sprung the ultimate surprise and taken all three points
With another horrible defeat on the road, divisions opening up between the manager and some of the players and a widening disconnect between the fans and the club, Everton are sailing into some pretty treacherous waters under Rafael Benitez
This was the Grand Old Lady at her most raucous; seething with a sense of injustice, the “bear pit” driving Everton forward and the team battling out a win by sheer force of the collective will of almost everyone in the building
The departure of Marcel Brands takes Everton away from the Director of Football model and back to the all-encompassing, hands-on manager with oversight of scouting and full control over player recruitment strategy. Given the control Rafael Benitez likes to have in that regard, it's likely to be a permanent reversion for as long as the Spaniard remains in charge.
Amid calls for sweeping change from the top to the bottom of Everton Football Club, Marcel Brands is as much persona non grata as anyone else among the hierarchy but the exact nature of his brief and the extent of his culpability in bringing about the mess at the club is more than a little opaque.
At a club increasingly bereft of direction, Rafael Benitez is not the biggest problem but he is rapidly becoming the most urgent.
This painfully lopsided derby illustrated the extent to which these two clubs exist on different planes now but it also left the owner and the Board under no illusions of the frustration and fear that now exists among the fanbase
Depressingly, Brentford really were there for the taking had Everton been able to get their act together in the final third but with Rondon leading the line, Benitez's men were toothless
An utter formality of a match that ended up being little more than a training session for Guardiola’s attackers
Evertonians will have taken a measure of encouragement from their team's second-half display at Molineux when the fight returned along with a good deal more cohesiveness and purpose but the first period won’t be forgotten in a hurry
Perhaps with a point to prove, Josh King ran riot for Watford, scoring on his return to Goodison Park to level things up in the first half and then completing his hat-trick as Everton utterly fell apart in the final quarter of an hour
Everton more than matched their much-fancied hosts and claimed a valuable draw at Old Trafford, a result that might have seemed beyond them on paper but which underlines the impressive work done by Benitez so far
Everton did enough to get the job done in professional fashion without needing to move out of second gear to keep themselves up among the leaders
Detached and intangible, James Rodriguez was a fleeting part of Everton history and, perhaps, the last spasm of excess from a regime that seems to have put itself on a more pragmatic footing
An Evertonian of any pedigree knows there was nothing shocking about this result which sees the club out of the League Cup before autumn has really even begun.
The seeds of this defeat were sown in a summer transfer window that left key positions in the squad short on depth. Nevertheless, the margins in this match were a lot finer than the final score suggests
Credit Benitez, his players or the supporters — all three, probably — but there is a fire and a resilience about this version of Everton that has emerged in the face of adversity.
Circumstances have contrived to keep Everton and James Rodriguez together for another few months at least. Amid reports and rumour of non-plussed manager and disengaged star, all parties need to come together to ensure that this most gifted of players has a role in the team this season
The profligacy of the Moshiri years has slammed into the harsh realities of an imposed financial straitjacket from the outside and the need to fund a new stadium, resulting in a summer of unusually strict austerity
This was as professional and comfortable an away performance as you could hope for and it extended Rafael Benitez's unbeaten start as the Blues’ boss to four matches
After 18 long months of almost exclusively empty stadia, away days are back, with all the challenges and that intimidation that come with it. Everton came close to passing the test at Leeds but will rue some slack defending and missed chances.
In many ways, a merely competent first season could be enough for Rafael Benitez to match Carlo Ancelotti's 10th-place finish; a better-than-hoped performance from the Spaniard would yield improvement. But with none of the much-needed quality additions materialising this summer, it's hard to see Everton troubling the top six places in 2021-22
James Rodriguez is one of the best players of his generation; a Rolls Royce of a player at a club blighted by so much mediocrity in the modern era. Sadly, he looks to be a luxury Everton can no longer afford.
Jordan Pickford has come in for criticism at Everton for his past mistakes and apparent lack of focus and it wasn't that long ago that many were doubting his role as first-choice keeper. Fast forward past the hysterical media reaction to his part in the Van Dijk incident to today and you have a player who appears to have matured tremendously in the harshest of spotlights
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* Everton deducted 8 pts; † Forest deducted 4 pts for PSR breachView full table
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