It has been a dismal month and a half for the Goodison Park faithful, but things are finally looking up. Jarrad Branthwaite is back starting Premier League games and as a result, Everton are back winning at Goodison Park. Granted, Crystal Palace themselves are winless in the league, but they remain a very good side and a lot of hope surrounds them for the future.
The first half was grim quite frankly, from an Everton perspective, as Palace took the lead early on through a Guehi strike from close range. Everton created very little, especially in the way of ‘big chances’ and never really had control in the game.
Whatever Sean Dyche said at half time was a stroke of genius, with Everton scoring under 2 minutes into the second period. Well, I say scoring, that does not do Dwight McNeil’s goal justice. It was an unbelievable strike from 25 yards out, the middle of the goal – rocketed into the top left hand corner. No goalkeeper in the world could save that! It is only fair to point out the fact that Ashley Young did well to win back the ball and feed it into do Dwight McNeil for the assist in the first place. Despite his vast volumes of criticism, he has now provided two fantastic assists in the space of a week – first to Iliman Ndiaye at Leicester and now to do Dwight McNeil. McNeil scored the winner soon after, after another moment of brilliance, this time by Harrison to control the ball and then control it to the man in excellent form. This sudden burst in quality from McNeil is no surprise, Dyche moving him centrally has worked wanders.