Everton went into the month of February in a bit of good form. The blues were unbeaten in four headed into their away match at Craven Cottage. Two away matches and two home matches layed ahead for Everton. A chance to improve their terrible home form and continue their stellar form away from home. The four match stretch began in the capital.
Fulham v Everton
Fulham had not beaten Everton at home since the 2018/19 season going into this match. Fulham up that point had been a tough team to beat at Craven Cottage. Losing only three matches at home when they played against Everton. Everton’s away form has been well documented so it was a battle of great home form vs great away form. In the early part of the match it was a feeling out process, not much between the two sides. Just after the quarter hour mark Fulham grabbed the lead. A nice attack down the wing led to a good cross. The shot was saved by Jordan Pickford, but his save bounced off Mykolenko and into the net. Fulham had two or three good chances after that with one effort hitting the crossbar. Everton looked totally out of sorts and were lucky to not be down at least two goals but survived to half-time down by just the one goal.
At the start of the second half and for a good majority of that half Fulham still looked like the more likely side to score. Despite creating a few more good chance Fulham still couldn’t find the second goal. Their lack of finishing in the end came back to bite them. With 15 minutes left Everton scored their equalizer. A nice attack down the left side finished by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Just a few minutes later Bernd Leno punched a KDH corner into the back of his own net and Everton had the lead. Everton saw out the last 8 minutes plus stoppage time to secure all three points.
Everton v Bournemouth
After the Fulham match Everton had back to back matches at Hill Dickinson Stadium starting with Bournemouth. There was not much between the two sides in the first half of this match. Everton had a goal chalked off in the first 15 minutes due to an offsides. Thierno Barry had a bad miss on a spilled save by Djordje Petrovic as well. Despite this, Everton were the better side in the first half, and took the lead on a penalty just a few minutes before the half.
Everton did probably start the second half as the better team but Bournemouth did start to slowly into the game as the second half moved along. With 30 minutes to go Bournemouth’s persistence paid off. Adrien Truffert playing a stupendous cross to Rayan whose header was never going to be saved by Jordan Pickford. Three minutes later another defensive gaff lead to the second Bournemouth goal on another header. It was all too easy for Bournemouth as the Everton defense had two awful lapses in their marking and they were behind. Much like Fulham in the previous match Everton did not finish their chances and because of that they were beaten 2-1, adding yet another loss at home.
Everton v Manchester United
This was easily the most frustrating match of the month. A match where Everton quite frankly played Manchester United off the park for most of the match. Good pressure lots of chances on goal, all while holding Manchester United to almost nothing. Despite being the better team Everton could not find the finishing touch on any of their chances. Coming off a clearance on an Everton corner United went on a counter attack that was started by an excellent pass by Matheus Cunha. It was a long ball over the top that Bryan Mbeumo had to chase down. James Tarkowski was in good position to get to the ball first but Mbeumo’s pace was no match for the Everton captain. He beat him to it and laid it off to Benjamin Sesko. It was a fantastic first time finish to beat Pickford to the bottom right hand corner. United should have scored a second goal late into stoppage time to kill the match off, but Pickford did just enough to prevent the goal. Despite being the better team for a majority of the match Everton were once again beaten at home.
Newcastle United v Everton
The last match of the month was one of the best matches in the entire league this season. Lots of goals, and one of the best saves you are ever going to see. Everton opened the scoring in this one. A perfect corner from James Garner was put in by a glancing header from Jarred Branthwaite. Everton were once again the better team to start this match, but just after the 30 minute mark Newcastle found an equalizer. It was a great pass by Tonali to find Jacob Murphy who’s shot took a massive deflection pass Pickford and into the net. Just three minutes after that Dwight McNeil unleashed a shot from distance that was saved by Nick Pope. Pope fumbled the rebound and Beto pounced on it before he could recover and restored Everton’s lead.
Much of the second half was uneventful. Beto did hit the post for Everton but up until the final 10 minutes it was pretty uneventful in the second half. Newcastle were pushing hard for an equalizer and it was pretty obvious that it was coming any minute. in the 82 the dam broke and they got the equalizer they were looking for. It was Jacob Murphy once again off a volley on a nice ball from Joelinton. The ball did take another defection and Pickford probably felt hard done giving up a second deflated goal. The celebrations did not last long though pretty much right after kick off. Ndiaye found KDH down the left and he played a great ball into the box as Barry was making a darting run. Barry was tripped up and if the ball wouldn’t have hit off his backside and went into the net it would have been a penalty. It wasn’t a pretty goal but Everton did not care. Now the real highlight of this match was the save Jordan Pickford made in the dying moments. Tonali hit a pure strike on the volley from outside the box. It was hit with tremendous power and it if weren’t for cat like reflexes Newcastle would have had a great last minute equalizer. Pickford kept it out and probably locked up save of the season in the process. Everton won 3-2, and it was a highly entertain match.
Everton had a decent month of February and are in good position to make a push for European football next season. They will have a tough run of fixture in march with matches abasing Arsenal and Chelsea, but the toffees are in the think of the race to play in Europe once again.
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