Everton have discovered a new strategy to avoid squandering two-goal leads: simply score once. Despite controlling the first hour of what appears to be a relegation battle, even at this early stage of the season, and deservedly taking the lead through Iliman Ndiaye’s first top-flight goal, they remain in search of their maiden Premier League victory.
In a match that will be remembered more for the torrential rain, Leicester, who are also winless, rallied strongly to secure their third point of the season thanks to Stephy Mavididi’s equaliser 16 minutes from time. Everton did not exhibit the signs of a team lacking confidence. They should have been ahead before they scored, with Jesper Lindstrøm arriving late and unmarked at the back post, only to volley wide of Ndiaye’s superb cross from the left.
Ndiaye was outstanding. The former Sheffield United winger put his team ahead when, after passing to Ashley Young, he sprinted onto the full-back’s brilliant return pass inside the penalty area, evaded Harry Winks, and shot past Mads Hermansen, hitting the near post in the process. At that moment, the heavens opened; for Everton, the floodgates could have opened as well, given their superiority over Leicester at that stage.
However, as biblical rain heralded thunder and lightning, the chances Sean Dyche’s side created did not match their dominance. Slick, compact, yet always threatening to penetrate through Ndiaye on the left flank and Dwight McNeil through the middle, they appeared anything but a team without a point, more like a team with a point to prove.
With Jarrad Branthwaite set to make his comeback with the Under-21s, the central defensive duo of Michael Keane and James Tarkowski were retained, despite conceding an average of 2.6 goals per game. Jake O’Brien, the £16 million signing from Lyon, again started on the bench. Leicester were dismal in the first half. Although Jordan Pickford juggled Mavididi’s mis-hit cross against the inside of his own post, Steve Cooper’s poor run looked set to continue.
The former Nottingham Forest manager has only one win from his last 18 Premier League games and had spent much of the past week complaining about Crystal Palace’s first goal after Leicester let slip a two-goal lead last weekend. At least Leicester had come through that game with a point; Everton had twice in succession lost after leading 2-0. That seemed to be their only saving grace when they failed to double their lead this time, with Ndiaye cracking a rising shot just over the angle early in the second half and nearly being found by Lindstrøm in a two-on-one attack.
Hermansen had to make a great diving save to repel Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s shot as Everton kept countering in dynamic fashion. Yet Leicester are nothing if not resilient. Caleb Okoli, the £12.6 million summer signing from Atalanta, headed one difficult chance over from Mavididi’s dinked close-range pass. As the storm subsided into a mere deluge, Everton tired.
Dyche had pointed out he had only 12 fit outfield players for last Tuesday’s Carabao Cup game with Southampton, when they lost on penalties, and here he had to play James Garner at right-back. Orel Mangala did well in the midfield anchor role but this was his first league start for the club since joining on loan from Lyon and Leicester finished the game on the up. Mavididi, their most creative player, equalised when Winks’s corner fell his way inside the six-yard area and his shot on the turn bounced down into the ground and up into the net.
