Falling the Wrong Side of the Margins

Everton 0 - 1 Wolves

It’s utterly joyless being an Evertonian at the moment. Since the 11th of March, the Blues have played 14 games and their fans have had precisely two wins to savour in that time — that’s if anyone truly “savoured” the final-day win over Bournemouth rather than simply breathed a massive sigh of relief.

The glorious aberration of the 5-1 win at Brighton in early May is really the last time we Toffees have truly been able to celebrate anything. For weeks before, between then and the narrow win over Brentford, it was points desperately eked out here and there and a pervasive sense of crushing anxiety.

The new season, one greeted with only cursory optimism, has just been depressing, with mounting injuries, the ongoing failure to land a striker — one appears, in the form of Beto, to be close to signing, albeit an entire season and three more games too late — and, now, three successive defeats and no goals scored to start a league campaign, something that had never before happened in Everton’s history before today.

When added to last season’s worst-ever points haul, it’s just another sorry statistic from matters on the pitch to add to the utter failure thus far of Farhad Moshiri’s reign. And, of course, there was demoralising news off the field last Wednesday when it was revealed that MSP Sports Capital, arguably the most suitable potential owners of any that have emerged so far, won’t be taking an investment position in the club.

Today’s clash with Wolves was billed as an early-season relegation “six-pointer”, with both clubs expected to be battling it out at the wrong end of the Premier League table this season. It was a lot to put on only the third match of the campaign but it reflected the importance of Everton picking up points from bottom-half clubs, many of such games they lost last season which almost ended up costing them their top-flight status.

Frank Lampard oversaw home defeats to Wolves, Southampton, Leicester, failed to beat Nottingham Forest and Leeds and lost at places like Bournemouth and West Ham. Under Sean Dyche, meanwhile, the Blues played two home games against teams in the lower half of the table — Leeds and Bournemouth — and beat them both which at least offered hope that he could glean the points the club will need to again survive from those kinds of fixtures.

So far, that hasn’t been the case but it hasn’t been for the want of trying and there hasn’t an awful lot you can blame the manager for in these opening two games at Goodison Park. Against Fulham, Everton recorded a higher xG without scoring than any team managed in 2022-23 and this afternoon against Wolves they had seven efforts on target. They had as many corners to the visitors’ zero but the less said about those the better. (Suffice it to say that how Ashley Young was allowed to keep curling the ball into Jose Sà’s gloves time after time without somebody else taking over set-piece duties was an infuriating mystery.)

No, in a game in which both teams had goals ruled out for offside and both goalkeepers made brilliant reflex saves to deny almost certain goals, this came down to quality — or the lack thereof — in the final third, more gilt-edged chances, and lax defending at the crucial moment from the captain, James Tarkowski. You could see why the club have pushed to sign Wilfried Gnonto this summer, a player with self-confidence belied by his diminutive stature and who can make things happen creatively, especially in the absence of Alex Iwobi.

Lewis Dobbin was handed his first senior start wide on the left and was willing and industrious but ultimately didn’t have the guile to get the best of Nelson Semedo. Youssef Chermiti came off the bench midway through the second half for his debut and Arnaut Danjuma shifted to the left and he also showed some nice touches and good hold-up and link-up play in the absence of the kind of service he, Beto and Dominic Calvert-Lewin will need. In that respect, Dwight McNeil and Jack Harrison can’t get fit fast enough.

The 2pm team news had at least given Everton supporters what they had been hoping for, with Michael Keane finally demoted to the bench in favour of Jarrad Branthwaite and the young defender put in an impressive display on his first Premier League start since May last year.

With Danjuma up front playing off Abdoulaye Doucouré, the Toffees’ intent was clear from the off as they pressed and harried Wolves in the early phase of the match.

Danjuma let fly from distance in the fifth minute his his shot sailed over and Nathan Patterson’s centre just eluded him a few minutes later after the much-improved Amadou Onana’s side-foot shot had been blocked before the Belgian threaded the Dutchman in beautifully with almost a quarter of an hour gone.

Danjuma was narrowly flagged offside and Sà denied him superbly anyway but it provided hope that Everton might find the cutting edge in the final third if they kept plugging away.

Just like Fulham a fortnight ago, Wolves were largely kept at arm’s length in the first half, with their best openings coming from sloppy passing from the home side in their own half. Fabio Silva was almost allowed in twice from successive giveaways by Idrissa Gueye and Onana but it was the home side who should have gone in at least a goal to the good.

James Garner’s half-volley bounced off Dobbin’s chest on the edge of the six-yard box and fell to Tarkowski but he lashed the ball disappointingly into the side-netting, Branthwaite headed a free-kick wide on the half hour and Danjuma could only place a cushioned first-time effort wide from close range.

Everton began the second period the brighter as well and created the first genuine opening when Doucouré was played in behind the full-back but he elected not to test the goalkeeper and tried to find Garner in the centre but delivered his cross behind the midfielder and the chance was lost.

A couple of minutes after that, after Danjuma’s attempt to flick the ball home was bundled behind by Sa, Garner’s shot was parried to Branthwaite but he planted his header from the rebound straight into the keeper’s arms.

Wolves, growing into the contest just as Fulham did on the opening day, then had their best spell of the game and appeared to have taken the lead when Hugo Bueno whipped a ball in and Silva nudged it home but the offside flag came to the Toffees’ rescue.

Jordan Pickford then hesitated almost fatally coming for a long pass and Silva nipped in behind Tarkowski but the Portuguese missed the target and the Everton keeper made amends a couple of minutes later with a terrific reflex save to deny Matheus Cunha.

Pickford’s exploits were matched by Sà at the other shortly afterwards. He had already pushed Danjuma’s shot away but when Garner delivered a wicked cross to the back post, Doucouré met it with an unconvincing header that looped up and the keeper had to change direction and paw it over his crossbar.

Chermiti replaced the willing and industrious Dobbin with 23 minutes left and soon forced a corner trying to divert Danjuma’s cross past Sà and Doucouré thought he had grabbed the winner when he finally found the composure in front of goal to take it wide of the keeper and slot home but the linesman’s flag, confirmed by VAR Graham Scott, cut his celebrations short.

That just left Sasha Kalajdžić to enter the fray with five minutes left and within two he had delivered the killer blow as he stole in between Tarkowski and Patterson to flick a deep cross from the Wolves right inside the far post.

Dyche replaced Danjuma and Gueye with Tom Cannon and threw Keane on as a desperate auxiliary striker but Everton were unable to fashion anything in the five minutes of added time.

Dyche will again be doing his best to cling to the positives, as he must and should. It was another case of the Blues living and dying by the fine margins and being left to count the cost of missed chances as the visitors found the decisive goal to render the effort from Everton meaningless by the final whistle. (If you want some metrics on which to hang an optimistic hat that rather prove the point, Michael Greenall's stats should help.)

Beto, should he come through his medical and become the fifth signing of the summer, should help. He may not be prolific but he is big and will provide that much-needed focal point up front in Calvert-Lewin’s absence. Beyond that, there is hope that the likes of McNeil and Harrison can provide thrust on the flanks and that in Iwobi and Danjuma there’s sufficient flair to bridge the creativity gap but the importance of picking up those elusive first points grows with every passing game.

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