Result:
Everton (1) 1 - Coventry
City (0) 1
Scorers: Stuart 45
(pen); McAllister 68
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Everton: Southall; Short, Watson, Unsworth
(73 Branch); Barrett, Parkinson (82 Grant), Hinchcliffe, Kanchelskis;
Barmby, Speed, Stuart. Booked: Short Subs Not Used: Gerrard, Hottiger, Limpar. Unavailable: Ferguson, Ebbrell, Rideout (injured); Jackson (on loan) |
Coventry City: Ogrizovic, Shaw, Williams, Daish, Richardson, Whelan
(Strachan 86), Dublin, McAllister, Salako, Telfer, Borrows (Ndlovu 60)
Subs Not Used: Jess, Filan, Costello. Booked: Whelan
 Ref:
Graham Poll
|
Att:
31,477
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League
Position: 9th
|
Results
and League Table
|
Previous Match: Nottingham Forest v Everton - Next Match: Everton v Southampton
Colin Wood on SoccerNet: Gary McAallister, Coventry's £3m record signing, had the last word at Goodison Park last night as Everton paraded their most expensive purchase - £5.75m Nick Barmby.
The night started full of promise for Barmby, less than a week after his arrival from Middlesbrough. It proceeded impressively, reached halfway in controversy when he was involved in the incident that brought a penalty and a goal for his side, but ended in some disappointment.
Everton missed out on a fourth consecutive Premiership victory -- which would have been their best run for six years -- when McAllister crashed in the equaliser after 68 minutes with the aid of a deflection off Craig Short.
Through the first half, Barmby led Everton in attack after attack. Coventry had difficulty picking him up as he alternated between midfield and the front line. But they had to wait until the third minute of the time added by referee Graham Poll for the breakthrough -- and then they really had to thank Poll for the opportunity.
Steve Ogrizovic dropped a cross from Andy Hinchcliffe, then failed in two attempts to retrieve the ball. There was confusion in the area as Andrei Kanchelskis's pass found Barmby. His shot hit Kevin Richardson, the 33-year-old midfield man who started his career at Goodison, on the thigh and bounced up on to his hand.
Poll pointed to the spot. Coventry were understandably incensed and Noel Whelan was booked for stepping in the area before Graham Stuart could take the kick. When he did, he made no mistake and Everton were ahead.
Coventry, with only one win and four League goals behind them, channelled their anger into a positive attempt to extend their unbeaten run at the ground to five visits. The equaliser arrived after 68 minutes and this time it was Everton's turn to complain -- first because they claimed Short was fouled by Whelan and then that they should have had the throw-in that followed.
McAllister took the throw on the left, moved in to take a pass from Whelan and hit a powerful shot from near the edge of the area that was past the diving Southall. Coventry did not sit back for another draw and substitute Peter Ndlovu should have put them ahead four minutes from the end but shot over from a few yards when it looked easier to put a low cross from Whelan into the net.
Everton manager Joe Royle said: 'It was a terrific debut for Nick. We should have won. We had our chances.'
Richard Marland: Its a frustrating life being an Everton follower. Last night I came away from Goodison feeling distinctly frustrated.
This was all made doubly frustrating when you consider that the three Saturdays on which the games were originally scheduled were excellent afternoons for football.
The pre-match mood had been very optimistic. Even with the disappoint of not having Dunc out there, Coventry were largely seen as cannon fodder. Maybe we should have paid a little more heed to our own stuttering form and our distinctly poor recent record against Coventry, who are becoming something of a bogey side for us...
The match started fairly promisingly. We played with a back three of Unsworth, Short and Watson, with Barrett and Hinchcliffe pushing up the flanks. Parkinson and Speed played in central midfield with Kanchelskis wide right and Barmby and Stuart playing up front.
Barmby looked particularly lively up front, linking well with those around him and looking every inch a good buy. We soon started creating chances, Barmby having more than one chance to open his Everton account. However, despite the bulk of the first half possession and the creation of a number of reasonable chances we failed to make any of them stick. That was until deep into first half injury time.
Ogrizovich made a hash of a cross, dropping it as he clashed with Speed and Barrett. The ball ultimately fell to Barmby who's goalbound shot was stopped by Richardson's hand. The ball clearly struck hand but it could be argued that it was unintentional. Whatever, we weren't quibbling and Stuart calmly despatched the penalty.
Throughout the first half we had made a conscious effort to pass the ball out from defense. On the whole this had worked quite well, but our current back three don't entirely convince as ball playing defenders. On more than one occasion they had managed to put each other and Nev in difficulties. Coventry had obviously spotted this because in the second half Dublin and Whelan were noticeably closer to our back three, harrying them and rushing them.
Ally this to the increasingly squally wind and the result was an increasingly untidy game. I felt that we still had the better of things, Speed having a magnificent shot just tipped onto the post by Ogrizovich, but we weren't putting forward a real case for scoring more goals.
Midway through the second half, we were made to pay for our first-half profligacy, albeit in controversial fashion. Firstly Coventry were given a corner when the players and crowd felt we should have been given a free kick for a charge by Whelan on Short. The resultant corner was cleared to just outside the box, Stuart challenged for the ball against a Coventry player and the ball clearly went out of play for an Everton throw-in, but the referee gave the throw to Coventry.
McAllister threw in to Whelan and then moved infield. Whelan had time and space to find McAllister who had time and space to shoot from the corner of the box. His strike took a deflection to leave Nev clutching at thin air. We were right to feel aggrieved about the goal but having said that we should have had the match out of sight at this stage. We also lost concentration for the disputed throw-in, Parkinson and Stuart remonstrating with the referee rather than getting on with their defensive duties and thus leaving the space for Whelan and McAllister to operate in.
We still had twenty minutes remaining in which to rescue the match. We made a tactical switch bringing on Branch for Unsworth, reverting to a flat back four, pulling Barmby into midfield and playing Branch up front.
Once again Branch made a difference with his pace and verve. He opened up a couple of half-chances for himself, but was unable to convert them. The clinching goal never came, despite some further half-chances and a Dave Watson header that was cleared off the line.
We also came horribly close to losing the game altogether, following on from poor defending by Short and Barrett, when Ndlovu was presented with possibly the best chance of the match right in front of goal. Fortunately he put it over the bar, a bad miss and a stroke of good fortune for us.
This was a match that we should have won. We had a long period of ascendancy where we should have put the game out of sight. We had a large number of attempts at goal but in the end had to rely on a penalty to score, -- a fact which says a lot about the way things are going for us at the moment.
We never managed to totally subdue Coventry. Throughout the entire game they were creating the odd chance with Nev being called on to pull off some very good saves. If all this sounds horribly familiar then it should because it has been the story of our season so far -- an inability to convert ascendancy into goals and an occasional frailty at the back.
Team - 6 - Another flawed performance. Some definite plus points -- the easy integration of Barmby and the fact that we are creating chances. Ultimately though I go out were I started, this was a frustrating performance.
Dave Shepherd: Another forecast storm was a bit late in arriving, so the threat of a third successive soaking matchday was averted. A nice autumn night, a very handy-sized crowd for a TV-covered weekday, and a new Goodison hero to greet... things looked set fair and the crowd were in great spirits.
And so it was Goodison heaven for the first 10 minutes. Waves of attacks, an infinite number of passing combinations to send your love of the School of Science soaring, and in the middle, a beautifully crafted gem doing Peter Beardsley impressions (with feet, not face) -- Nicky Barmby.
This guy is absolutely dripping with talent. I tried very hard not to fall in love with him right then (Everton have had many false honeymoons in the past... recently Preki & Mark Ward, not to mention several strikers), but I failed dismally and I'm a gibbering acolyte. Paint a number 12 on my back and give me a pretty blond haircut -- this IS the answer to your dreams... a player of Beardsley skill without the Beardsley looming sell-by date. Twenty Two, count 'em twenty-two years young.
Well Coventry escape the early pressure and crowd enthusiasm, and settled down to their niggly spoiling style of play. This started very cautiously, but grew as time went on. Why? Because the referee was the league's Number One trigger-happy card waver, Graham Poll... but no-one was getting booked! Someone has quite obviously taken him aside and said ''Look here, cut down the cards or you're going back to Kettering Reserves v Weymouth''.
Unfortunately 'cutting down the cards' doesn't help if you are incompetent in the first place, and Poll is incompetent to the point of surrealism. He's not a misguided little general like Durkin, nor an officious fool like Elleray, (though he actually encompasses the worst faults of both those gentlemen); he is simply a bad ref.
He's narky. The look of tearful rage on his face when he booked someone for arguing a penalty was pure playground theatre. He's no idea how to read the players or the crowd for the giveaway differences between partisan hopeful appeals and genuine ones.
He doesn't even guess well. His understanding with an almost equally incompetent linesman was that of two individuals rather than a team. That such an official from a pool of thousands can rise to the top is incomprehensible.
So the game deteriorated into a shirt-tugging match, which delighted Coventry -- a team who had scored once in fast approaching 500 minutes of away play and looked nowhere near likely to second that. It was a professional display, but only of how to shut up shop and try for an underdog away point. Hence their excessive bitterness when having shut down the Everton attack and the crowd for 35 minutes, they had a penalty awarded them by the linesman for a Kevin Richardson handball which was a gift for TV, because you could argue for 2 weeks about whether or not it was a just decision.
Graeme Stuart struck an eminently saveable penalty just firmly enough to evade the ancient Ogrizovic.
There was very little improvement in the second half, but having failed in two previous attempts to ruin the game, Poll took his toll with 22 minutes left. Whelan (a perrenial journeyman with no detectable graces) shoved Short in the back as he tried to shepherd a ball out for a throw, and got the last touch in the process.
Poll both ignored the shove and gave the throw the wrong way - enter McAllister to score what looked like a class goal from the side, but from behind the goal had a Southall-stranding deflection. Even so the ball survived fingertips and the bar on the way. Two hundred soggy Coventry fans went wild, & Big Ron ran onto the touchline to celebrate his impending resignation.
This enraged the Goodison crowd. Two more dubious decisions later, the St End lost it and gave a from-the-heart rendition of an old favourite not heard for some years -- a song about match officials to the tune of 'Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer'.
The home team tried to step up a gear, and swarmed like angry blue bees around the Park End area. JR tried to help by adding Branch for Parkinson (slight knock) and Grant for Unsworth. This left Everton with an incredible tally of 3 small attacking midfield players, Barmby, Grant and Speed, plus two very similar-style strikers up-front, Diamond and Twiggy. Even AK was double marked (a tactical ploy EFC should be able to punish severely by now), so spent a lot of time running centrally.
But oh dear it was just another Coventry day at the office. Hit the post, clear off the line, the writing was all too clearly on the wall for the 'first--halfers' of Goodison Park. Much more likely was an outrageous winner for the no-hope oldies, and it duly came -- only for Ndlovu to manage his own hot tip for miss of the season by scooping a tap-in over from six yards with Southall beaten.
Forget the weather, it was MUCH worse last week at Forest. This one goes down to a combination of the return after a two-match absence of the Everton finishing problem, the infuriating habit Joe's bunch have of turning down the heat with only a 1-goal lead, and the ruination of an otherwise interesting contest by Poll's incompetence.
Card count high or low, a Poll by any other name would be as crap.
But even such a caricature of an official cannot detract from the important fact of the night -- Barmby is a dream signing, a dream player, and fair warning to the xenophile and media-darling teams of the Premiership that anytime from now on, Everton Football Club are back in business, and coming to rearrange your comfortable smug impression of them as midtable mugs, laced more importantly with their own particular idiom.
TEAM PERFORMANCE: 6 Same old 1-goal lead apathy. Same old inability to knock the division's soft games for six (well 4). Same old bags of talent and no clear signs of gelling into a Big Threat. But edging closer.
Ref: G Poll (Tring) I Tried ever so hard to find any redeeming facets of Mellor's 'worst' referee, and came away more disgusted by him than even Durkin and Elleray, and that's very, very bad.
Guy McEvoy: Another Monday night match -- another wind-swept, rain soaked ordeal. Another 90 minutes that prove the only consistent characteristic of Everton is their seemingly innate inconsistency.
It all started off like a dream. Wonderful passing to feet, purposeful movement from every position, neat interchanges in midfield, crushing defence at the back. The quality of build-up meant that quickly chance after chance was coming our way. New boy Barmby, Stuart, Speed, Kanchelskis even David Unsworth from long range could all have knocked us ahead.
Could have - but didnt. How familiar is this to us?
As each chance went begging a sense of frustration started to creep in that wasn't lost on Coventry. It gave them hope upon which to seize and so slowly but significantly they began to reimpose themselves in the game with a couple of dangerous quick counter attacks. Nerves were settled slightly immediately before half time, when Everton won a penalty for an infringement I couldnt see with Graham Stuart putting just enough on the spot kick to beat the keeper who had guessed to dive the right way.
My delight at the goal was moderately dampened by the fact that I had been unable to resist odds of 25-1 for our penalty taker, Mr Unsworth, to pick up the first goal. I was mentally spending the 75 quid I would surely win when Diamond stepped forward. After last week's Craig Short debacle, can I now lay claim to be the most unlucky "nearly" punter in the country?
Unfortunately, after the break Everton, now playing into an increasingly powerful wind, proved unable to recreate any of the early dominance. Barmby's initial burst started to fade as he began to look unsure of his exact role, Stuart was running everywhere but often without purpose, Kanchelskis was comprehensively bettered by the left back Shaw who must have had the absolute game of his life. Andrei was out-paced, out tackled and out-witted and this Shaw lad didn't even look like he was breaking into a sweat.
For Coventry McAllister showed that he is still a different class and influenced his team through shining example. Everton came close to putting the game beyond the visitors when an opportunist long-range drive form Speed struck the post but in truth it was no surprise when that man McAllister put them on level turns with a fierce deflected shot. We can moan about the fact we should have won the throw in prior to the goal, and we can moan about the fact that there was no doubt we should have had a free kick immediately prior to that, but in the end Coventry were good value for their equaliser.
It set up a frantic finish, particularly with the introduction of Branch who once again showed his team-mates what it means to play with heart, and Grant coming on for a hobbling Parkinson. We sighed with relief when Peter "Unluurrvvee" scooped the ball over practically from the goal line, and we cursed with frustration when a Dave Watson header was cleared off their line by John Salako. In the final reckoning the points went because we let up, and they were men enough to take advantage. Two points down the swanie.. Will we be looking back to this one when the European places are allocated at the end of the season?
Michael Kenrick: The TV cameras were there. The rain poured down to put the dampers on Barmby's debut. He so nearly scored. He was a bit lucky to win a dubious penalty. Stuart drove that home despite Ogrizovic diving the right way. He went close a number of times. He played his heart out for Everton. There was no lack of commitment from him -- or any of the other Everton players, either. They just could not get the ball into the net. Twenty-three chances -- seven really good ones in the first ten minutes!
Coventry did their best to harass and harry Everton into mistakes. But Everton had lots of possession and dominated the game for long periods. Yet, each time the Blues failed to score, so each breakout by beleaguered Coventry looked more and more like bringing the equalizer.
Then it came. A throw-in awarded the wrong way after Stuart's challenge. McAllister takes it, gets the ball back on the edge of the area and moves into a gapping space before anyone can close him down. He unleashes a shot of fierce venom, rising first from his lethal boot, then the barest glance from an Everton defender's lunging leg. Finally, it rises a fraction more from the despairing fingertips of Southall as he hurls himself upward and to the right in a vain attempt to counter the newly deflected trajectory. Smack into the roof of the net: an excellent goal we would all be proud of ... if it had been scored by a blue shirt..
So two more points go begging. The record is really stuck: Everton create all the chances but fail to capitalize. How many times have we heard this? How many more times will we hear it? Joe Royle must be tearing his hair out. He has assembled a squad of tremendous promise, but they just cannot finish the job. At times, especially in the third quarter, the game became stale and scrappy. But Royle's substitutions livened things up to boiling point. I think it may have been an exciting match for the neutrals. But I have no idea really. Neutral I wasn't: I had screamed myself hoarse by the end of it.
Team - 7 - Its hard to put a finger on exactly where Everton went wrong as a team, and why they didn't win by a hat-full. They had lots of possession. They generally used it well, and showed they could build fearsome attacks from good passing moves on occasion. But this game rested on breaking down a very stubborn and aggressive defence. Everton could not do that, no matter how hard they tried. Is it simply bad luck, or is there really something wrong with the ingredients? Perhaps they need even more time to "gel" -- another three years according to Joe Royle.
Ref: Graham Poll let so many things go so as not to stop the flow of play. Shoulder charges, clashes with the keeper, mistimed tackles, and he only booked two players -- I thought it was the 1960's all over again. Some decisions shown to be wrong on TV replay, but he was technically correct with the all-important penalty. He was probably "making allowances" for the tough conditions; it was good to see the players accept this, and not take too much advantage of it.
Marko Poutiainen: To start with, I very much disagree that we need a goalscorer like Andy Cole. You want another 5' 7" striker upfront?
To me it's obvious we need a tall man forward, as Dunc seems to be injured all the time. Even Rideout would do for a while (I reckon he'll be back soon?). Every single cross went begging when our aerial "threat" consisted of Stuart and Barmby.
I hope JR isn't still thinking that the three-man central defence works, as it didn't do that yesterday. Seemed like they didn't know who was supposed to do what yesterday, there was evident hesitation in many situtations.
But I still think we played well attackwise. There were enough chances to bury Coventry, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. And Kanchelskis is a waste at the moment. If Fiorentina is still interested, sell him for the 8 million, and get Sinclair to replace him! He's doing all the wrong things, shooting when he should pass and passing when he should shoot.
Osmo Tapio E Räihälä: Coventry totally deserved their point. Everton's performance was horrible as a whole: no idea of what to do, how to do it, who to do it. Throwing away chances like we did last night, we are never going to beat teams like Coventry, who obviously felt this as a big-match occasion and took their chance.
It doesn't matter if we have possession when we
No, what we lacked last night was a dominant playmaker in midfield and not a goal-scorer. There was nobody taking command in the midfield, hence all those aimless long balls to be caught by nobody.
I disagree that we need to sign a specialist goalscorer -- if only Duncan will ever get fit. With him it would have been a totally different story yesterday. What we need is a Tony Grant-cum-Peter Reid of '85, a midfield general and commander who'll handle situations like these.
Coventry's domination early in the second half was so overwhelming that I have to say they really deserved the draw. How can these Everton players let themselves be pressurized by a team of Coventry's calibre???
Here are some comments on individual performances:
TEAM PERFORMANCE - 5 - As said earlier, no vision, no idea, no one to take responsibility. If you disagree, you cannot honestly say: "NIL SATIS NISI OPTIMUM".
Referee, Graham POLL - 4 -One of the most inconsistent games for a ref I've seen for a while.
MAN OF THE MATCH - GARY MCALLISTER (without question)
Chris Marks: We should have buried 'em,
John. They were lucky not to be 3 down at half time, but we shouldn't have
had the penalty. Then again ,the Coventry goal shouldn't have happened as
we should have had a throw first, from which they scored. The wind/rain didn't
help, but we should easily have got 3 points at home to Coventry. If we want
to qualify for Europe, we're going to have to win these games. Overall
Team Rating:- 6.
Peter Ball, The Times: COVENTRY City may be struggling for goals and confidence but there is nothing wrong with their spirit. They spoilt Nick Barmby's introduction to his new fans at Goodison Park in the FA Carling Premiership last night, Gary McAllister's second-half goal and some hectic defending earning them their fifth successive draw.
"Obviously, we should have won," Joe Royle, the Everton manager, said. "We played very well in the first half and it was a terrific debut for Nick. He had several attempts at goal and I think he'll be very popular here."
Barmby might have made a dramatic start to his Everton career by scoring in the second minute. Instead, his shot was saved by Ogrizovic and, although he showed some pleasing touches, without Duncan Ferguson, Everton once again looked lightweight, needing Stuart's penalty finally to take the lead in the dying seconds of the first period.
Barmby was heavily involved, his shot hitting Richardson's arm, persuading Graham Poll to award a penalty, a decision that looked harsh. But that is the kind of luck Coventry are having.
They had only scored four goals in the Premiership, and it showed, although Richardson went close with one volley, and brought a fine save out of Southall with another drive. "At least for a team that is at the bottom, we don't lose and if they keep digging in as they have been, we'll turn one or two of those into wins and then you'll see the difference in the table," Ron Atkinson, their manager, said.
Ogrizovic was the busier goalkeeper, but even his main occupation was catching - or dropping - crosses and it was a fairly straightforward cross that produced the Everton goal. Hinchcliffe hoisted one high, Ogrizovic dropped it, lost the ball under pressure from Barrett and Speed and was stranded as Kanchelskis took possession and passed to Barmby. Barmby's shot hit Richardson and Stuart scored from the spot after the inevitable Coventry protests.
The goal gave Everton the fillip they needed and they began the second half more incisively. Even then, however, their attacks too often lacked a cutting edge, although Speed nearly increased the lead with a 20-yard drive that beat Ogrizovic but came out off the post.
A miss a few minutes later was more typical of their finishing. A mistake by Williams conceded possession and Kanchelskis put in Barmby, but the £5.75 million signing went wide of the goalkeeper and was unable to turn it back in. Later he met Barrett's cross, but put his header over.
Those misses were to prove costly as Coventry began to respond to McAllister's promptings, and soon after the arrival of Ndlovu to strengthen their attack, they claimed the equaliser. A throw-in was half-cleared to McAllister, who found space and drove the ball home. At the death, both sides might have won it, Ndlovu missing from close range and Salako clearing off the line.
William Johnson, Electronic Telegraph: A MAGNIFICENT strike by Gary McAllister which registered only the fifth goal of Coventry City's Premiership season, was enough to earn the Midlanders a valuable point in what is promising to be a prolonged battle against relegation while a more ambitious Everton were left to regret a failure to capitalise on an abundance of chances.
Nick Barmby's debut could easily have been a spectacular one but for the positioning of the ageless Steve Ogrizovic in the Coventry goal and the instinctively outstretched arm of Kevin Richardson on the six-yard line. Everton's £5.75 million record signing was in the thick of the action throughout a first period which the Merseysiders dominated, seeing close-range shots blocked in almost the first minute and then well beyond the last.
His crucial effort in first-half stoppage time came after Ogrizovic spoiled his early good work by dropping a routine centre from the right at the feet of Andrei Kanchelskis. The Russian winger, who could at that stage have been accused of greediness in possession, on this occasion neglected to shoot, instead teeing up Barmby whose shot was kept out illegally by Richardson.
Referee Graham Poll responded to his linesman's penalty decision and Stuart gave Everton the lead they deserved from the spot. The interval margin should have been much wider. Barmby's first attempt on goal saw Ogrizovic produce a good low save, he was then robbed in the penalty area in the act of shooting before seeing Ogrizovic make an excellent reaction stop to his header from a deflected Gary Speed cross.
Speed missed Everton's best chance of that opening period, failing to connect with Joe Parkinson's dangerous ball across, while Kanchelskis wasted several promising opportunities.
Coventry, who had drawn their four previous Premiership matches, seemed content to settle for another point, although Richardson almost snatched them the lead on two occasions, shooting inches wide with Neville Southall struggling and then being thwarted by Southall somehow recovering to get into the way of his wickedly deflected shot.
With Dion Dublin bringing another save from Southall and John Salako driving over, Coventry could have threatened Everton's supremacy. Coventry were more willing to attack in the second half, threatening an equaliser in the opening exchanges when Liam Daish's low shot was deflected just wide by Speed.
Ron Atkinson's side drew level after 67 minutes when Everton were caught sleeping at a throw-in. McAllister punished them by taking a return ball from Noel Whelan and lashing a rising shot into the roof of the net, Southall being undermined by a wicked deflection.
A revival might have been beyond Coventry if Speed had been a bit more accurate with a lower shot from similar range which struck the foot of an upright. Everton sent on their lively young striker Michael Branch for central defender David Unsworth in a bold attempt to claim all three points. Branch hit the side netting with one shot and saw another blocked.
Both teams had chances to win in the closing stages, Coventry substitute Peter Ndlovu missing a simple chance five yards out and Dave Watson having a stoppage time header hacked off the line by Salako.
Report Copyright The Electronic Telegraph
Monday, 4 November 1996
EVERTON 1-1 COVENTRY CITY 31,477 Stuart(pen:45) McAllister(68)
Sunday, 3 November 1996
BLACKBURN ROVERS 3-0 LIVERPOOL 29,598 Sutton(pen:3,56) Wilcox(24) NEWCASTLE UNITED 3-1 MIDDLESBROUGH 36,577 Beardsley(40,69) Lee(74) Beck(88)
Saturday, 2 November 1996
ASTON VILLA 2-0 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 35,310 Tiler(20) Yorke(65) DERBY COUNTY 2-0 LEICESTER CITY 18,010 Ward(56) Whitlow(og:89) LEEDS UNITED 3-0 SUNDERLAND 31,667 Ford(27) Sharpe(62) Deane(68) MANCHESTER UNITED 1-2 CHELSEA 55,198 May(81) Duberry(31) Vialli(61) SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1-1 SOUTHAMPTON 20,106 Newsome(14) Le Tissier(pen:50) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1-0 WEST HAM UNITED 32,999 Armstrong(67) WIMBLEDON 2-2 ARSENAL 25,521 Jones(44) Gayle(67) Wright(6) Merson(64)
Table after 4 November 1996
Club P W D L GF GA GD Pts Newcastle United 12 9 0 3 23 12 11 27 Arsenal 12 7 4 1 24 10 14 25 Wimbledon 12 7 2 3 22 13 9 23 Liverpool 11 7 2 2 20 11 9 23 Chelsea 12 6 4 2 21 17 4 22 Manchester United 12 5 4 3 23 19 4 19 Aston Villa 12 5 3 4 15 11 4 18 Tottenham Hotspur 12 5 2 5 12 11 1 17 ***EVERTON*** 11 4 4 3 12 12 0 16 Sheffield Wednesday 12 4 4 4 13 17 -4 16 Derby County 12 3 5 4 12 14 -2 14 West Ham United 12 4 2 6 11 16 -5 14 Leicester City 12 4 2 6 9 15 -6 14 Southampton 12 3 4 5 21 17 4 13 Middlesbrough 12 3 4 5 17 21 -4 13 Sunderland 12 3 4 5 9 14 -5 13 Leeds United 12 4 1 7 11 18 -7 13 Coventry City 12 1 6 5 5 15 -10 9 Nottingham Forest 12 1 5 6 10 20 -10 8 Blackburn Rovers 12 1 4 7 9 16 -7 7
This League Table Update provided by Lawrence "Leagueman" Breakey