Toffees Stay Sweet

Everton continued their impressive post-corona form; this time beating high-flying Leicester City 2-1 at Goodison Park to record 2 wins and a draw with Liverpool since Project Restart. I was impressed again with their team solidity & defensive acumen; as they look so much well organised compared to before the break.

Leicester have been in a bit of a funk since the re-start themselves; unable to generate the cohesive team-play & high-scoring game that has typified their current season; and Everton started looking like a team trying to capitalise on that. After only 10 minutes; a confident Everton move down the left saw rookie Anthony Gordon cut the ball back superbly for an on-rushing Richarlison to score expertly with a left-foot first-timer.

Leicester's already-brittle confidence took another knock; and things were to get worse for Brendan Rodgers' men when Wilfried Ndidi was rather harshly adjudged to have handled whilst jumping for an aerial ball with Michael Keane. Up stepped Gylfi Sigurdsson to coolly slot down the centre past Kasper Schmeichel.

Leicester came out after the break looking determined to get back into things; and Rodgers' astute substitutions of James Maddison & Kelechi Iheanacho for Dennis Praet & Harvey Barnes; plus their progressive formation change from 4-1-4-1 to 4-4-2; saw them put pressure on the home side. Rather fortuitously; they reduced the deficit when Mason Holgate's clearance rebounded off Iheanacho into the back of the net.

However; even though they dominated possession in the second half; they couldn't really trouble the imperious Everton back-line; marshaled superbly by the in-form Michael Keane. The injured Richarlison was brought off for Tom Davies; and Everton's resulting change to a 4-5-1 formation only served to invite further Leicester pressure. Carlo Ancelotti probably noticed it; and made a further change of Yerry Mina for Alex Iwobi; switching formation again to a 5-3-1-1; which helped stabilise Everton down and eventually see out the victory.