Everton halt slide with emphatic win over Palace

Everton 3 - 0 Palace

Everton ended a three-match losing streak in fine style, putting three past Crystal Palace at a buoyant Goodison Park with the help of two assists from Alex Iwobi and a first goal of the campaign for Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

The big striker, starting a home game for the first time since scoring that dramatic winner the last time these two sides met back in May, bustled his way past his man to score the opener with 10 minutes gone.

The Blues weathered Palace’s efforts to get back into the game early in the second half and doubled their lead in the 63rd minute when the Video Assistant Referee rightly determined that Anthony Gordon was onside before he tucked home from close range and a wonderfully-worked third between Iwobi and substitute Dwight McNeil put the flourish on an excellent team display.

Despite speculation that he might try and mix things up following those three straight defeats, Frank Lampard had kept faith in his core team and they rewarded him with a high-intensity start that yielded a first goal that was all down to Calvert-Lewin’s physicality.

The 25-year-old dispossessed Luka Milivojević 10 yards outside the Palace box and when Iwobi threaded the ball back to him, Calvert-Lewin took a neat touch past Marc Guéhi, had the strength to hold the defender off and then drilled a shot across Vicente Guaita that the goalkeeper couldn’t prevent from finding the far corner.

Demarai Gray had a volley blocked and Guaita had to tip a dipping Gordon shot over the bar before the visitors finally had an effort on goal in the 28th minute when Joachim Andersen’s tame header offer a corner was easily gathered by Jordan Pickford.

Palace came out of the half-time interval the more purposeful of the two sides and when Idrissa Gueye was caught in possession in midfield four minutes into the second half, it took a saving tackle from the industrious Seamus Coleman to deny Zaha the chance to try and level the contest from the angle.

Two minutes later, Conor Coady had to come across to deny Michael Olise after Vitalii Mykolenko had blocked Odsonne Eduard’s shot and 10 minutes after that Olise whipped a free-kick over the crossbar.

Everton re-asserted their dominance not long after the hour mark, though, with a well-worked goal that started in their own half with a lovely pass from Iwobi through the lines to Gray whose pass to Amadou Onana was worked in turn to Mykolenko arriving in acres of space on the overlap.

Guaita got a hand to the Ukrainian’s low shot but could only palm it into the path of Gordon who had the simple task of knocking the ball into the empty net. The referee’s assistant had raised his flag for offside but a check by VAR resulted in what was clearly the correct decision — a second goal for Everton.

The match went through a scrappy and bruising phase and Zaha avoided a red card for a heavy elbow to Gordon’s head, sub Jean-Philippe Mateta was booked for a late tackle on Coady and Maupay drew an 84th-minute foul when Andersen clattered though him in midfield.

Everton took that free-kick short and McNeil, on for Gray as a 72nd-minute change, took the invitation to drive at the Palace defence, slip a pass into the box for Iwobi who deftly back-heeled it back into the winger’s path and McNeil tucked it home to make it 3-0.

 

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