If you never watched Saturday’s match at Norwich, don’t bother, you’ve seen the match before. The Blues came out devoid of ideas and inspiration and the home team, in as poor form as Everton, took full advantage. As the Blues stationed their centre backs inside the box, Norwich finally fired in the 16th minute when a Josh Sargent cross was turned in at the near post by Everton’s own Michael Keane. Things only got worse less than two minutes later when Norwich broke on the counter-attack and a completely dismantled Everton defence, allowing Adam Idah to stroll through the middle of the park and receive the ball at the top of the 18 behind a flailing Keane.
Vitaliy Mikolenko was able to get shoulder-to-shoulder with the Norwich striker but he held off the young defender and poked it home past Jordan Pickford. This of course started unbridled rally from Evert. The Blues responded by continuing to fail to commit players to the attack, leaving them predictable and easy to defend. It wasn’t until Richarlison came on with Yerry Mina for Soloman Rondon and Seamus Coleman that Everton showed any real signs of life. An Everton corner was recycled back in and Norwich keeper Tim Krul was forced to punch away a quality Mykolenko cross but his punch was only 15 yards away from the goal and Richarlison put it back with a fantastic bicycle kick.
His effort was for nothing however as Anthony Gordon, who put in another decent shift, couldn’t put away the best chance the Blues saw to draw even. From then on the hosts looked more likely to put away a third and Everton’s season spiralled further down. At this point, relegation is a very real and appropriate consideration for the Toffees.
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