Sheaf Saint

Imagine if he wasn't holding the ball and pushed his hands into Fernandes' face with the same force. He would quite rightly have been sent off. But yeah, it was dreadful officiating all round because it was quite blatantly our throw in.

Which makes RM's constant tinkering with the starting lineup even more baffling.

OK, I stand corrected. I always thought it had to be no attempt to play the ball (did it used to be?). Still wasn't a clear and obvious DOGSO though. Would have been very harsh to send him off.

Too much uncertainty whether THB would have got across to cover, and it was clearly a genuine attempt to play the ball. Would have been a travesty if he had been sent off for that. As for Fraser - he cynically pulled down a player who was about to tap in to an empty net. Clearest red card for DOGSO you'll ever see. There's no comparison whatsoever between the two scenarios.

Downes is very close. Bednarek too, probably.

Dyche harping on about Bednarek not being sent off - he obviously doesn't actually know the laws of the game. Even if you accept that THB wouldn't have got across to cover, it was quite clearly a genuine attempt to play the ball rather than a cynical, deliberate foul, which it would need to be in order to warrant a red card.

OK, I take it back. I think the slo-mo replay made it look worse, but in real time it was a good, precise finish. However, if I was an Everton fan I would be questioning Pickford's positioning, because he left a largely open goal.

I'm assuming this means we have already agreed terms with a replacement then, yes?

Yeah that was a heart in mouth moment for me too!

It really wasn't. We were piss poor and rode our luck more tgan once. Even our goal was a scuff shot that 9/10 would have been saved or pinged off a defender. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy we won. But let's not pretend that this result doesn't just paper over the cracks. We didn't win because we fully deserved to, so I can't agree that it was in any way a 'good' performance.

They'll be fumin' that they've managed to lose to a team as shit as us. And rightly so. We got very lucky, all things considered.

Never in doubt 😉

You have to laugh really.

It was embarrassing and he deserved a yellow, but why did Young not get one as well? You can't do that and not expect any consequences.

Even if we somehow manage to win this, it won't disguise the fact that we've been fucking dreadful yet again. Ramsdale has kept us in this, and you have to say Everton are looking far more likely to score than we are.

How's that not a foul on Manning?

Lallana going off was tactical, apparently. He was far and away our best player in the first half FFS.

Not on the bench today.

It's inexcusable really. If you can't match other teams for ability then at least make sure you can match them for fitness.

That was our best move so far.

Ooh! A shot! Our first shot! On 40 mins!

Gotta make a change at HT. Swap Arma for Dibling at least to give us some threat on the right. And surely we have better attacking options on the left than Manning, don't we?

Well this is predictably shit isn't it.

So.... 5 at the back, in a home game against another poor team with a woeful away record. Just so we can shoehorn Stephens in somehow. Dibling dropped. Is that supposed to be Arma and Archer as a front two? If it is then surely they are too similar to one another to be effective in that combination. If not then RM might be trying to be really clever again somehow by baffling everyone. Sugawara has been one of our best players so far this season but has been inexplicably dropped. Sulemana and Cornet have made sub appearances lately but don't even make the bench today, replaced by the hopeless BBD and the raw and inexperienced SAA. But no actual wingers starting who could exploit Everton's weakness at RB. We, however, have two RBs on the bench. It's almost like Russ doesn't actually want to try and win this game.