Everton vs West Brom: Blog | DCL Hat trick, 5-2 now!
Digne #Digne
Final whistle. Everton win!
90’ – The ref has added four minutes but at this point everyone except Richarlison and Kean are just playing the clock down.
85’ – Tired legs are telling now, especially for the visitors with a man down. They have parked the bus at this point, and Everton are just moving the ball around probing and looking for weak spots.
77’ – James Rodriguez is now coming off, with Moise Kean on. Both Richarlison and him will be looking for a goal late on.
75’ – TOP BINS FOR RICHY!! ARGH OFFSIDE! Lovely ball into the box and Richarlison meets it with a cracking volley off the instep, right into the top corner! Deserves a goal him, but the offside flag is up.
70’ – West Brom run up the white flag now, taking off their main goal threats Diangana and Pereira. Blues make their second change too, with hat-trick hero DCL coming off and Alex Iwobi on.
66’ – Corner into the box and Dom scores again! That’s his first full Everton hattrick!! 5-2 now.
65’ – Gylfi Sigurdsson is coming on for Doucoure, first sub of the day.
James won a freekick just outside the box, and now both are standing over it. Digne is there too. It is the Frenchman, deflected off the wall and off the bar!!
62’ – 4-2 Everton now!! James with a delightful dinked ball over the backline, Richarlison gets to it and puts it across the goal and DCL bundles it home!
58’ – Good counter for the Baggies and it takes a last ditch interception from Digne to prevent a scoring chance. How are ten men covering more ground than the eleven Blues?!
54’ – Richarlison wins a freekick from about where Digne swung one in last week. He curls in another, Keane header is saved and he reacts quickest to prod it back in! 3-2!!
50’ – Grrr, Everton as usual after hauling themselves ahead are making this all too difficult for themselves.
The replay of the equalizer shows Mina in the wall not jumping but DCL next to him did jump, and it shaved Mina’s head on its way in. Poor communication observes the commentator, and we have to agree with him.
46’ – Chance for West Brom early with a freekick outside the box. Pereira with a worldie, and it’s 2-2!! Ridiculous!
Halftime Thoughts – The Blues grew into the half after going down early. Still looking a bit shaky in their own half, but Everton were good value for the lead with the sheer volume of possession and chances they were creating.
Against ten men in the second half they should win this at a canter.
The halftime whistle has gone and Bilic is losing his mind at referee Mike Dean. And now he has been sent off as well! Bilic had three red cards as an Everton defender, always been a bit of a powder keg him. To be fair though, Ancelotti got sent off for similar as well if you recall.
45+1’ – Red card West Brom! Former Arsenal man Kieran Gibbs is off. James with a little shove after Gibbs passes the ball away, and the fullback reacts with a shove into the Colombian’s face, who goes down! Mike Dean has no hesitation sending him off after consulting with VAR.
45’ – GOAL! James with a beauty! Richarlison with a nifty dribble and finds James at the top of the box, he controls and fires low into the far post. Trademark James goal.
43’ – Nice ball into the left half-space for Richarlison to chase, wins a corner. Low from Digne, cleared at the front post.
Another corner, Digne to take again. Too deep this time and cleared again. Eighth corner there.
40’ – Long diagonal into the West Brom box, no blue shirts nearby and Dara O’Shea panics and gives away a corner. That is punched clear by the goalie.
38’ – Deep ball into the box and DCL and Johnstone come together, the goalie wins it then drops it but cleans up the mess.
James is over on the left side now, looks like Gomes to the right.
35’ – West Brom charge down the left, and Diangana in on goal from a narrow angle, Pickford out smartly to smother.
Good fox-in-the-box kind of goal there for DCL; our Trent wrote an excellent piece this week about his development in the light of Everton’s new signings.
31’ – Ball in the goal! But the flag is up for offside?
Ok the replay is clear the ball came off a West Brom player to DCL who was in an offside position when he backheeled it in. But the ball went off the West Brom defender and never hit Richarlison, this is a clear goal.
Mike Dean consults the VAR, goal stands!! 1-1!
29’ – That throw is now cleared for a corner. Keane rises highest, and heads it over. Good spell of pressure that.
27’ – Lovely cross from Digne cleared, falls to James at the top of the box, he finds Coleman steaming in, cross blocked for a corner.
Corner is cleared for a throw, Digne long effort back into the box, Richarlison snaps off a shot and it’s another corner. Cleared eventually for another throw.
25’ – The Baggies passing has been much sharper than Everton, and they look more creative too. Five attempts on goal so far, which is what they had all last week against Leicester City.
Gomes finds Richarlison running into the box, but his left-footed shot is wild. The defender was putting pressure on him to be fair.
22’ – Oh my word. Jake Livermore makes a good run into the box from a cross and his snapshot is off the post! Everton’s midfield and defence have been quite horrendous so far.
20’ – Mina with another awful clearance allows West Brom possession in the final third. Very sloppy passing from the Blues so far.
Coleman run from the right wins a corner. James to take, cleared. Digne throw from the other side, and Baggies clear their lines.
17’ – West Brom are backing off letting Everton have the ball, and it’s allowing the midfield to push up. Allan has a pop from about 25 yards, straight at the goalie Johnstone.
15’ – DCL so close! Nicks the ball off a loose backpass in the 6-yd box, wins a corner.
Poor corner is cleared and Diangana is away to the races, Doucoure pulls him back and gets a yellow for his troubles.
12’ – Everton with a quick chance to pull one back with another freekick into the box, but Richarlison is unable to get his shot on target.
10’ – Diangana scores for West Brom! Picks up the ball in his own half, runs not necessarily too quickly but Mina just keeps backtracking away until just outside the box, and his curler from the channel goes into the far post, no chance for Pickford. 1-0 West Brom, they deserved it too.
9’ – Doucoure wins a freekick on the right, James to take. Curled into the box and Mina goes down off the ball. Loud yell, but referee Mike Dean is rightly not interested.
7’ – Diangana and Robinson are getting plenty of joy on the Everton right. Pickford has given away the ball with his clearances a couple of times already.
3’ – Nice move wins the Blues a corner, DCL beats his man to the backpost and his header is wide. That was a good chance, he made proper contact.
1’ – Early fluttering hearts as Mina’s lofted backpass bounces awkwardly and Pickford muffs his clearance, resulting in an early shot on goal that he has to make a save on.
Ancelotti sticks with the same eleven players as last weekend, as does Bilic. Iwobi the only change, replacing Walcott on the bench. Gordon and Nkounkou will feel hard done by after their performances midweek.
Everton are two games into the new season and looking to make it the perfect start to the campaign with a third win in three. Also, and whisper it quietly since it’s only the second matchweek of the season, a Toffees win (or draw) will see them go top of the table *wink wink*.
Carlo Ancelotti named all three of his latest signings in his starting lineup in the win away at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, and will likely have the same XI for West Bromwich Albion’s visit today after resting all but Michael Keane for the win against League Two Salford City in the Second Round of the Carabao Cup midweek.
Evertonians, having seen false dawns similar to this before, will be struggling to keep their expectations in check. The world will be watching Ancelotti’s charges to see if they can maintain the same level of intensity that they did at Spurs.
Former Blue Slaven Bilic led his West Brom side to automatic promotion last season coming in second behind Leeds United. The Baggies struggled last weekend though in their opening game at home against Leicester City, while showing decent form in the opposing half it was their defending that let them down badly.
Competition: Premier League Matchday 2
Date and start time: Saturday, September 19th at 4:30 a.m. PT / 7:30 a.m ET / 12:30 p.m. BST
Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Capacity: 39,572
Weather: 63°F/17°C, sunny, 2% chance of precipitation, 14 mph winds
TV: N/A – United States; BT Sport 1, BT Sport Ultimate – United Kingdom; DAZN – Canada, beIN Sports HD 1 & 2, SuperSport Maximo, SuperSport Premier League ROA, RMC Sport 1, Canal+ France, Star Sports Select 2
Radio: evertontv, SiriusXM FC, BBC Radio 5 Live
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Gamethread: Live blog above starting one hour before game time
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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com
Everton
Starting XI: Pickford, Coleman, Keane, Mina, Digne, Allan, Gomes, Doucoure, Rodriguez, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin
Subs: Virginia, Kenny, Sigurdsson, Iwobi, Bernard, Davies, Keane
West Brom
Starting XI: Johnstone, Furlong, Gibbs, Bartley, Ajayi, O’Shea, Livermore, Diangana, Pereira, Sawyers, Robinson
Subs: Button, Kipre, Phillips, Harper, Field, Robson-Kanu, Edwards
Ref: Mike Dean VAR: Simon Hooper
The Blues last played West Brom in January 2018, with an Oumar Niasse goal tying the game after an early goal from Jay Rodriguez had given the visitors the lead.
The two sides have fought out some grim battles in the past, but none so lopsided as this from four years ago.