Gray stunner ends 2022 on upbeat note for Everton

That's what makes the difference between losing at home to a bottom-of-the-table team and earning a point to The Champions.

That tackle on Foden, fucking hell. What a model for the hugely promising Patterson.

It's there for all to see, the defence is solid, we need more threat going forward. A quality forward player signed will see us progressing up the league.

Well done to Frank and the team, the match may have been a draw but a bit of pride and confidence has been won.

It works against the big teams, but when we're expected to have something, we still don't. This isn't the blueprint, it's just a well-executed plan which played to our strengths.

Brilliant goal by Gray.

It has to be said that the piss-poor quality of refereeing when teams play against the "big" clubs is so blatantly biased, if not corrupt!

If we have a couple of front men that our midfield have some confidence in to play up to, we will be a different prospect.
This would allow the middle to push on and pin teams back.

Now we need to take some confidence from this and swat Brighton away too. We simply have to back this up.

Haaland. How was he not sent off? Remember Allan? How was Haaland's assault not so much worse? Oh yes. Of course. He plays for Man City, not Everton.

But terrific performance. Brilliant goal. Going out tonight with a smile.

Good point and top performance to end what has been a turbulent year for the Blues and it's supporters. No repeat of the same next year, please.

Summed up the tempo of City – he legged it after his rash lunge on Mykolenko, as Tarkowski was calmly about to intervene. 🤣

Great job today by Everton FC!💙🤍🍻🍻👏🙏

We have an absolutely fantastic player in Demarai Gray, we need to be exploiting him much more than we do.

That goal was absolutely top class. I think there will be interest in him this summer.

An illustration of this came near the end when Maupay chose not to make what would have been a pointless chase for a long ball. Some fans voiced their displeasure but Maupay made the right decision, funnelling back into his own half to disrupt the next City attack.

This was in marked contrast to the debacle in the final minute of Monday's match when both our team and our fans lost the plot.

I've argued for some weeks Gray is a finisher and should be given a free role behind or close to the front striker. The goal today provided further evidence he is more effective in that role than he is hugging the touchline.

I thought City looked more than a little ragged as the game wore on. Indeed it was our players who looked more composed and, dare I say it, fitter.

Last but not least, Lampard made the right substitutions. Coleman for Patterson, who was on a yellow card and under pressure, was critical in helping us to see the game out.

All told, it was a great way to end what has generally been a very disappointing year.

What a game that was from Ben, BTW, considering it was his first day back after such a bad injury.

Hopefully we can take confidence from this performance and win on Tuesday.

Not many execute the dummy fall and slip-up with a precision rocket shot.

Magnificent skill, should be Goal of the Season. No one's done it in my recall? That was brilliance and if Messi, had done it, then so it would be.

Bolasie tried this skill often when he was an Everton player but it didn't happen in my recall.

Game changer for the season and for Everton.

UTFTs!
🍺🍺🍺🙏🏼🥃🥃🥃🙏🏼⚽️

Yeah, Demarai is the one player after Richarlison who can produce a magic strike. In fairness, he's also shown his nerve doing it in big games like today and the late stunner v Arsenal.

If he could just figure out a way to contribute more on his average days…

My first visit to the Etihad. The home fans seemed to live up to their reputation of barely making a sound. Away fans awesome as always.

I thought we were pretty good out of possession, a bit dodgy with the ball, but definitely earned that point. Iwobi tackling De Bruyne was a thing of beauty. A

ll this talk in the reports of us being physical - the worst fouls were all by them.

Happy New Year, Blues.

The season is a long, long road but I've more fears for Brighton than Man Utd in my view this week.

Injuries permitting, this can be a great week for Everton FC. Show the application, belief, and invincibile attitude, walk through walls, block the Haaland... the season is restarting.

“What's Our Name?”

UTFTs!

All ToffeeWebers, Happy New Year 2023!

Your boozer was intending to show the alternative version where the explosives aren't set off, so good decision.

Happy New Year to all Blues, throughout our world.

A performance to be proud of. Demarai Gray's feint – not stumble – to throw the City rearguard off balance... and then that immaculate strike!

Well done, Frank and the boys!

Happy 2023 to all Evertonians.

Sometimes a draw feels like a win. Well done boys and Happy New Year to all Blues everywhere. 💙

Yet, even after Haaland's routine goal, City were strangely subdued. Their fans were completely stunned by Gray's magnificent goal and left gasping by Pickford's superb goalkeeping.

Everyone put in a decent shift – an amazing
contrast after watching the Leicester and Wolves matches – and hopefully this should be the start of a desperately needed revival.

Agree with Kunal (@9), the real test will be Brighton and the following Saturday against Southampton. These are the games we have to win if we want stay above clubs like these.

All the bottom-half clubs have free hits against the Top 10 clubs. These are the pressure games we have to perform in.

A nice way to start the New Year ,waking up in Australia to see a positive result...

Let's hope the players take heart and get a good run to lift everyone's spirits.

Let's consolidate with a win vs Brighton! UTFTs.

But come matchday, it's about the team and I go into every single match with hope and optimism that we can get something.

I messaged Rob yesterday, who was amongst the fantastic travelling fans. I told him I thought I hardly breathed for the last 30 minutes. And when they put up 11 minutes, I could have fainted.

Judge a season on a season. We've shown we can perform and get a result. Just do it consistently and we'll be fine.

Demarai Gray gets a bit of stick. Like Everton, he is inconsistent. He didn't cut it at Leicester and failed to impress in Germany.

But he's one of the few players we have who can attack, excite and pull something like that out of the locker.

Very good and unassuming (unnoticed) run into the corner by Mykolenko to draw the defender's attention and create the time and space for Gray.

Apparently Kenwright has given the MotM to Mike Hughes, after his put down of an Evertonian, who had the temerity to say Chairman Bill needs to go.

Mike Hughes really got stuck, in blaming all the managers for wasting the money and exonerating Bill of blame. You couldn't make it up.

I wonder who would get the sack if Radio Merseyside's listener numbers suddenly fell off a cliff? It wouldn't be the boss by any chance, would it?

He's hopefully just clinging to any old crappy notion in his little mind. He know it's a total game changer for Everton the day he leaves but he'd rather us struggle or stay irrelevant as long as he remains. Crafty nasty bastard of a human being.

Happy New Year.

With Simms and Calvert-Lewin (assuming his injury woes persist) as cover, I don't see there being any role for Maupay at all. If possible, we should try and get him out on loan somewhere.

A deeper role could also suit McNeil (similar to the one we had Rodriguez in).

I expected a thrashing and I got a gritty performance achieving a precious point from the Champions away from home. Well done.

For now, though, let's enjoy a rare point against City and a resolute defensive performance that ended a woeful football year on a respectable note.

Gray's goal shows why he frustrates us so much, has bags of ability as we've seen in his time here but just doesn't do it enough.

The target for Demarai Gray now is can he score a few more this season and rise to the occasion, we know he's capable.

Certainly the players concentrated for the whole game, as you must if you are to get anything at City. I watched it again on MotD and it was suggested that this may be the template for Everton this season, and Murphy said Frank got his tactics spot on.

So we play 9 men in and around our own 18-yard box and hope to score a worldy on our odd breakaway is the way to go. And as for Frank getting his tactics right – what, by filling our box with players? That's not tactics, that's raising the white flag.

Lets not forget, in their last home game, which was just before the World Cup, Brentford went there and won. They didn't play the whole game in their own half either; when they got possession, they attacked in numbers – something we didn't do.

Again, Lampard takes off our best midfield player, Gueye, just as he took him off against Wolves. No wonder he looked far from happy to see his number raised. He did make the interception and set Gray off on his goal.

For me, Gray needs to be on the ball a lot more and the best way to achieve that is to play him in the Number 10 role. This would give us more of a goal threat with his pace and his finishing; playing off Calvert-Lewin would help create more space for others.

I agree with many posters – the draw will give the players and the crowd a lot more confidence going into Tuesday's game. But the crowd will demand the same effort and will want to see more front-foot football, although so far under Frank that's not something we have seen very often.

Onana can't play on Tuesday so another plus, maybe just play 1 holding midfield player with 2 midfield players given the freedom to attack when it's right to do so.

That's exactly how I saw the game and we did it with virtually 10 men because, apart from one very good pass which Mylolenko cocked up,Onana was the invisible man for most of the game.

He is a passenger at the moment, being carried by Gana Gueye – who was taken off to the amazement of many fans for the second time in consecutive games – while ambling Onana continued to frustrate, me anyway.

Calvert-Lewin was blowing out of his arse and had to come off. I thought Maupay was harshly treated on two occasions where he won fouls but didn't get them.

Gana had an excellent game but, on a couple of incidents just before he was hooked, he didn't quite get there. I think Frank could see he was emptying. Tom Davies saved the point we had deserved by denying a last-kick winner.

Patterson was also excellent, but he was injured and was walking a very fine line after getting a yellow. Seamus… Well, what more can you say? He just didn't stand in for the excellent Patterson, he came on and raised the bar.

Someone said the players were fighting like fuck for Frank. I can't disagree with that. The players have now set their own bar.

Really loved Haalands desperate impersonation of somebody who wasn't in the least bit rattled. The fucker should have gone long before the end.

What a comeback after that bad injury! For me, he is better than Mykolenko, who is still learning, and he should take over at left-back to shore up the defence.

Onana looks to me like a lot of young foreign players do in their first Premier League season. The pace of the game has now overtaken his initial enthusiasm and he's looking a bit lost. His suspension may help him and ultimately us.

I loved our purpose yesterday. We weren't going to lose that match, were we? All players at this level are fit, yesterday we showed the difference between fitness and purpose.

That's the standard for the rest of the season, keep that level of purpose. And at least one more striker to make it easier for us to spend more time in the opposition half.

I've always thought we have a mid-table squad. That means we can win or lose to anybody and play inexplicably well or poorly against anybody.

It's the purpose that makes the difference. That must stay, starting on Tuesday.

I have the same outlook as you, and as Paul said in his post, Onana is struggling to come to terms with the pace of the Premier League, and Gueye is having to do the work of 2 men in midfield.

Maybe next season he will hopefully have got used to the pace of the game, but so far has offered very little in any game he has played. I would play Doucoure alongside Gueye on Tuesday and have Gray in front of those 2 with Iwobi moved out wide.

Good that Calvert-Lewin got 70 minutes under his belt and let's hope he can remain fit for the next few months as we can't play Maupay as a lone striker and hope to avoid relegation.

It's one thing playing the current Champions away and having to defend for your life, but Tuesday will require a vastly different approach. So far under his leadership, Frank's team look far more comfortable playing a defensive game than an attacking game; let's hope, with a couple of additions in this window, that changes over the coming weeks.

Yes, I understand that first season syndrome by foreign players but Onana looks a bit more than a little bit lost to me; he's never in the right place. At the moment, he looks no better than Onyango, who also is never in the right place.

I can relax on Tuesday night knowing that Onana will not suddenly come into view and me thinking “Where the fuck has he been for the last 10 minutes?” – about three or four times during a game!!

He looks like he's not sure what his role is, like he's concentrating on being busy at the expense of reading the game. There's a very good player in there.

Then again, how much protection will he be given? As stated by many, he shouldn't have been on the pitch by the end of that and serving a suspension.

I actually don't think that challenge by Haaland was that bad. I think Mykolenko saw him coming and curled up. I also don't think Haaland 'left his foot in'.

It's remarkable to see him at the moment. He looks like the best striker in the world by a mile. You just hope injuries don't curtail his career, as that combination of speed and power never seems to last for long.

For me, it was a nasty tackle. A definite yellow bordering on red although the call for red will be the Evertonian in me.

He should have gone by virtue of what should have been a second yellow.

There's no way an Everton player stays on the pitch in the same scenario.

Let us not underrate the contribution of Coady to the successful "nastiness" we mustered yesterday. He's crucial for us and we must get him permanently, and make him Captain.

What danger was Mykolenko to City in the position he was in, 4 - 5 yards from the corner flag, and about the same from the touchline, in his own half, for fuck's sake?

It's not as if he was about to throw a dangerous cross into the city area. You could tell by his body language what he was going to do once he set off from his own 6-yard box.

Making contact or not, is irrelevant in my opinion. The intent was there to try and injure an opposing player, simply because the referee was not giving him what he wanted.

A great goalscorer, yes, but also a shithouse. Let's hope more teams start getting in his face.

I too believe it should be about intent.

There was an off-the-floor 2-footer in this Tottenham v Villa game. Off the ground and out of control. Luckily, contact was minimal.

Player still on the pitch.

Unlike some others I didn't see Haaland's challenge on Mykolenko as an attempt to actually injure him, just as fired up and way too reckless to possibly be sure that you won't catch a standing leg and do some real damage.

My problem with the refs is them relying on consequence (or feigned consequence) as the measure of a challenge. Same type of challenge should get same punishment irrespective of whether the victim is able to simply dust themselves down or not.

Allan's swipe last season was just an attempt to trip a player, wild and desperate though it was, not using himself as a human wrecking ball trying to use massively superior momentum to make it so much more likely the opposition will come off a whole lot worse.

Football fans really are blinkered, biased and down right stupid at times.

We should all enjoy watching talent (unless it's from across the park) and I'm also of the opinion that, although his intent was stupidly reckless, he never made contact with Mykolenko. (I believe anyone leaving their foot in normally makes contact?)

But I can also imagine the outrage, right across the phoney media, if it would have been Mykolenko, flying in recklessly on Haaland.

Silva quite rightly got booked for simulation; Haaland was lucky to stay on the pitch for his reckless tackle, but why can't football have a sin-bin, for some of these borderline decisions?

Although there is nothing borderline about simulation, which is nothing short of disgraceful, and should definitely be punished with something stronger than a booking.

Like their approach to the VAR and accountable refereeing, we can learn a lot from Rugby.