Dan Friedkin would be proud of script as Everton combine comedy, horror and glory in same afternoon
Welcome to Everton, Dan Friedkin. You are buying the weirdest team in the Premier League.
The Hollywood producer will find all the material he needs on Merseyside; comedy, horror, weepy and romance – there is no genre the modern Goodison audience fails to witness in the same afternoon. So it proved as Everton finally secured their first league win of the season: the split personality which has too often undermined them on this occasion being their salvation.
A month ago, the Evertonians were ready to acclaim the most complete performance of the Sean Dyche era, only to lose three goals in the last nine minutes to Bournemouth.
This week, the mutinous atmosphere was restricted to half-time when a crescendo of boos followed a poor first 45 minutes against Crystal Palace.
Defeatism was rife, Dyche was being harassed for his team selection and every Everton midfielder ducking out of a 50-50 ensured boiling point was reached so quickly you could have poached an egg within 10 seconds.
Shortly into the second half the mood violently swung again, with Dwight McNeil’s two superb goals ensuring the fresh air since the takeover news was absorbing the pitch as much as the boardroom.
For Dyche, it was a timely reminder that he knows the path towards Premier League safety, even if it is never smooth around Goodison Park. Assessing what this team will do next must be as difficult for him as for confused spectators.
‘The work is never done here’
They are often terrible, occasionally fine, and every-so-often a perfectly reasonable looking mid-table team.
Despite carrying at least two passengers in every starting XI – this week’s scapegoat was the unfortunate Dane Jesper Lindstrom who was subbed at half-time – Iliman Ndiaye looks like a gem and the return of Jarrad Branthwaite could not have come soon enough.
Branthwaite looked like he was running on empty in the final stages but was still imperious to ensure Palace never threatened a Bournemouth or Aston Villa-style fightback.
Then there is McNeil, who is building quite the portfolio of wonderful Everton strikes, a 25-yarder and close-range control and volley potentially changing the course of his club’s season and his manager’s immediate career prospects.
When pleading to keep his job beyond the imminent Everton buy-out, Dyche has put some observers in mind of a sodden Rishi Sunak standing outside Downing Street, knowing his days are numbered as he seeks public support. His approval rating could not have been any lower after Palace led through Marc Guehi’s nudge past Jordan Pickford on 10 minutes.
By full-time, Dyche could revert to imagining himself as an under-siege president seeking a second term, demonstrating his capacity to overcome a period of austerity in the hope of proving he can excel in sunnier times.
“The off-the-pitch [news] we don’t know if it is a positive yet,” said Dyche. “On the pitch is the bit I can try to control and it is pleasing for the players. They put a lot of effort in here. It means it is a step forward. The work is never done here. The expectation is go and win again and win again and win again. There were a lot of question marks to play through a nervy stadium. I don’t think we are as far off as people think.”
‘We gave them momentum’
Palace must ask themselves why they never turned up after the break – the guile of Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton so notable in the first half snuffed out once Everton’s work rate and organisation was in tandem.
“A bad 15 minutes straight after the [second half] kick-off,” concluded Oliver Glasner. “At the end of the first half the crowd was booing and not pleased with the home team and we gave them the momentum with the easy goal from a long ball from [Jordan] Pickford and by giving them a stupid foul. They got their belief.”
Glasner’s problem is that Palace’s position just above the bottom three does not match their talent.
“We are not pleased with the start. We do not want to be there. I think everyone forgot because of the last seven games of last season, we have been in the same situation before,” he said.
“Now we need to stick together and to deal with the situation, roll our sleeves up and keep going to get the momentum back. We will try next week against Liverpool, of course.”
After impassioned fan celebrations, Dyche can take pleasure in the pressure switching elsewhere.
It remains to be seen if he has the capacity to pass the audition to keep his job under new ownership. At the very least, he will not be short of a few dramatic scripts from his time in charge.
