Fulham penalty area after good work from Ndiaye on the left wing. It’s straight at Leno and doesn’t take much saving.Everton double-substitution: Beto and Orel Mangala on for Doucoure and Calvert-Lewin. The Goodison Park faithful are unimpressed with those changes.Fulham double-substitution: Harrison Reed and Harry Wilson on, Emile Smith-Rowe and Andreas Pereira off.Everton penalty area. He chests it down and tries to volley it into the top corner but his effort fizzes over.Everton centre-half is furious, as he believes Emile Smith-Rowe should have been penalised for a worse challenge on Idrissa Geuye a few moments previously. He might have a point.Everton goalkeeper claims.Fulham midfielder can’t quite get on the end of his lay-off.Fulham, with the goalscorer Iwobi moving to the other side.
Everton substitution: Jesper Lindstrom on for Jack Harrison.Everton in the headline and for that I humbly apologise. The record has now been corrected but my toes will take a lot longer to uncurl.Everton scramble clear.Everton half, charging past three blue shirts and playing the ball inside to Iwobi, whose low finish was superb.Everton defenders before playing the ball inside to his teammate.
Fulham box is poor. Bernd Leno catches the ball under no pressure whatsoever.Fulham clear their lines.Everton penalty area but pulls his low diagonal effort wide of the far post.Everton. Pereira and Smith-Rowe are the guilty men, the latter coughing up very cheap possession to Gueye.Fulham striker has to stretch to (mis)control the ball after bursting between two defenders. Pickford is a grateful beneficiary of his poor touch.
Fulham winger is just about edging on my scorecard.Everton defence.Everton, who are playing into the Gwladys Street End.Everton, only to have his tap-in ruled out for offside after Idrissa Gana Gueye had smashed a wonderful shot off the underside of the bar from 25 yards out. Dwight McNeil will also feel he should have scored for Everton, after Mykolenko teed him up with an excellent cross.
Fulham have gone close too, with Emile Smith Rowe, Adama Traore, Andreas Pereira and Alex Iwobi all passing up chances ranging from the half-decent to the excellent. This game is there for the taking.
Fulham midfielder fires over the bar from about five yards. Yet another excellent chance goes to waste but at least Traore is starting to get some decent crosses in. It’s half-time.Fulham, then Calvert-Lewin is denied again, this time by some good defending from Sander Berge. This is much better from both sides.Everton fail to clear the ball and a cross towards the far post is headed back across the face of goal towards Smith-Rowe by Jiminez. The Fulham midfielder has to stretch and is unable to keep his volley down and fires over the bar.Everton penalty area is dismal. The ball bounces in front of Michael Keane, who hacks clear.Everton wide on the left a long way out, going to ground under minimal contact from Tete. Dwight McNeil sends the ball into the penalty area, where Alex Iwobi is able to steer a header towards Leno.Everton defence with a pass to the byline but overhits his delivery and sends the ball out for a goal-kick. It’s that kind of game.Brentford 4-3 Ipswich Town is currently the one to beat for top billing.Fulham penalty area is headed clear by Antonee Robinson. The American really put his back – and his head, obviously – into that one.Everton box and for reasons best known to himself, the Brazilian eschews a shooting opportunity with the ball sitting up nicely for him, the goal at his mercy and Tarkowski off balance in front of him. A good chance goes to waste for Fulham.Fulham winger and sends it out for a throw-in.Everton fans appeal for a penalty after Calvert-Lewin goes to ground claiming he’d been fouled by Bassey. There was contact, but gravity had got the better of the Everton striker before Bassey arrived on the scene.
Everton boss from the right. Raul Jimenez gives Tarkowski a nudge to make room for himself but shoots weakly into the gloves of Jordan Pickford.
On current form you’d expect the Mexican international to do better, although VAR might have intervened if he’d scored because he did seem to shove Tarkowski.
Fulham.Fulham throw-in while trying to link up with Mykolenko down the left touchline. He was operating in a very tight space, so we won’t be too critical.Everton penalty area after a very minor coming-together with Vitaliy Mykolenko. He’s chancing his arm and the referee is having none of it.Fulham get the ball rolling and it doesn’t take long to find its way back to the feet of their goalkeeper, Bernd Leno.Premier League table: Today’s results, not least Brentford’s whiteknuckle win against Ipswich Town, means that Fulham go into this match in 12th place, while Everton remain in 16th.Everton striker is showing no great inclination to sign a new one and looks set to leave the club on a free transfer at the end of the season unless the club decide to sell him in January to recoup some money.
However, Sean Dyche has ruled out the possibility, saying survival in the Premiership is worth more than any funds that might be generated by the sale of the striker.
“The bigger prize in this case is Premier League football for Everton Football Club,” said the manager. “You know when I came in it was like you need to safeguard what we’re doing, so that’s the No 1 priority. Along that journey and timeline we’ve had to obviously bring money in. That’s been quite apparent and spend less and bring more in, lower the wages of course.
“But to be giving players away at any cost because you need some money, fortunately we’ve never been pushed that far and that’s still the same now. We can still make decisions on situations and I can’t see anything other than him being here certainly until the end of his contract and then hopefully beyond. We’ll see.”
Marco Silva: Having spent a little over 18 months in charge of Everton from June 2018 and taken to them to an eighth place finish in the Premier League, Marco Silva is likely to get a warm welcome on what is likely to be his final visit to Goodison Park this afternoon ahead of the club’s move to their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
The Fulham manager remembered his time at Goodison Park fondly when the subject was raised at his press conference yesterday. “It was an honour to manage a club like Everton,” he said. “I’m not the first or last, for sure, to say that because when you are there, you can feel how it’s a big club, how they have a massive fan base.
“It’s a historic [stadium], an old school one as well and there’s something special around the place. You can feel it. As a home manager, you can feel it more because it’s week-in, week-out. Even when you go there playing away you can feel it as well. It’s a special place to play.”
Today’s match officials
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Referee: John Brooks.
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Assistants: Simon Bennett and Darren Cann.
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Fourth official: Leigh Doughty.
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VAR: Stuart Attwell.
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Assistant VAR: Constantine Hatzidakis.
Those teams: Jarrod Brantwaithe returns from a thigh injury to take his place on the bench for Everton, who are unchanged from the side that beat Ipswich last weekend.
Marco Silva makes one change to the side that lost against Villa and it’s enforced: Issa Diop comes in for Joachim Anderson, who is suspended.
Everton (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Young, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko; Gueye, Doucoure; Harrison, Ndiaye, McNeil; Calvert-Lewin
Subs: Virginia, Patterson, Mangala, Beto, O’Brien, Coleman, Lindstrom, Branthwaite, Armstrong
Fulham (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, Diop, Bassey, Robinson; Berge, Pereira; Traore, Smith Rowe, Iwobi; Jimenez
Subs: Benda, Cuenca, Sessegnon, Reed, Cairney, King, Wilson, Nelson, Muniz
Early team news
Fulham central defender Joachim Anderson sits this one out on the Naughty Step after being sent off against Aston Villa last time out, while defensive midfielder Sasa Lukic and right-back Timothy Castagne both remain sidelined. Carlos Vniicius and Jorge Cuenca are both due to be assessed ahead of kick-off but neither player is likely to start.
Everton are without James Garner, who is suffering from a back injury, while Armando Broja, Tim Iroegbunam and Youssef Chermiti remain sidelined. Central defender Jarrad Brantwaithe and midfielder Jesper Lindstrom will both be included in today’s matchday squad after recovering from injury and illness respectively.
Goodison Park is the venue for this evening’s set-to between Everton and Fulham, where the hosts will attempt to make it five top flight games without defeat following a dreadful start to the season that saw them lose their opening four games.
They entertain a Fulham side that arrive on the back of consecutive defeats at the hands of Manchester City and Aston Villa, although it could legitimately be argued they deserved to take a point from at least one, if not both of those matches. Kick-off on Merseyside is at 5.30pm but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
Source: theguardian.com