If we presume Allardyce was staying until summer anyway, then this is a great day overall. It was the best we’ve played since we beat West Ham at home 4-0 (Who, by the way, didn’t have the best time today it seemed. One fan got laid out by Mark Noble, a folktale for years to come) and there were returns for Baines and Klaassen. However, if a poor result meant that Allardyce was hastily removed from his post, then maybe it was short-termism from the boys today to get the win.
But Everton won, and Liverpool lost, so let’s enjoy weekend things that we haven’t felt in a while.
Tosun looked absolutely phenomenal today as he was the embodiment of a heavyweight freight train, terrifying poor Gaetan Bong by running through him like he was a door in Takeshi’s Castle on more than one occasion. He took his goal superbly well and the crossbar is still on the move.
The defence was much more secure with a left-back at left-back and Ashley Williams left back at home.
All in all, decent.
Jordan Pickford - 7
He made some important saves that poorer goalkeepers would have let by, as he didn’t lose focus after an uneventful first half.
Séamus Coleman - 7
A return to fiery form for Séamus as he linked up with Walcott extremely effectively. The highlight of the game, however, may be the futile efforts of his teammates to pull him off of Knockaert after the Frenchman threw in a tackle Williams would be proud of and was swiftly removed from the pitch.
Phil Jagielka - 7
A great display all around for Jagielka who made no doubt that, indeed, he is not Ashley Williams. He dealt with the in-form Glenn Murray very well and made the defence look infinitely more solid.
Michael Keane - 6
Some haphazard passes are still present and his headers still take their own path half of the time, but he was more confident in his strides today with a secure partner alongside him.
Leighton Baines - 8
Regardless of your opinion on how much longer Baines has left as the first-choice left-back, we have missed him tremendously.
He was excellent today and did an amazing job of winding up Knockaert. His assist to Tosun was a harking back to a prime Leighton Baines as he bombarded up the wing, playing one-twos with whoever was up next and drilled a ball across for Tosun to smash home.
Tom Davies - 4
Not a good day for Davies as nearly all of his passes traveled backwards without a second thought. He tends to struggle in a two-man midfield and today was no exception.
Wayne Rooney - 2
You. Do. Not. Take. Penalties.
I’ve always said if you even want to have a sniff of penalties or free kicks at this club, you have to ask Leighton Baines. You have to be better than Leighton Baines.
Nobody is better than Leighton Baines.
His all around game didn’t help either, with some frankly awful passes and a complete lack of positional awareness.
Yannick Bolasie - 8
A tremendous performance from Bolasie after a wasteful start. He is one of the best at the club at creating opportunities for himself but one of the most wasteful at trying to finish them.
He turned it around in the second half in regards to his end product as he was pinging pinpoint cross after cross, one of which Walcott capitalised on and he was electric down that left hand-side.
Gylfi Sigurdsson - 7
Another good run-out for Gylfi as he was instrumental in threading the attack through a resilient Brighton back line.
His set-pieces also caused a lot of trouble all afternoon, even with Brighton’s massive defensive unit of Duffy and Dunk.
Theo Walcott - 7
Walcott started off quite slow but grew into the game as much as anyone and got a well-earned goal. His lightning pace is sometimes just too much to deal with for any team as a link up of Walcott-Tosun is a foundation to build on going forward.
Cenk Tosun - 9
A coming-of-age type performance for Tosun who was absolutely excellent in everything that he did, from chasing down to slotting home. His first-half display was wonderfully gritty and set the tone for Brighton’s team. Don’t play around with Cenk.
A shades of Duncan Ferguson performance only got more Evertonian-friendly as he cascaded up and down the pitch fighting for every single ball and eventually launched one home in what was a cap to an extremely satisfying move.
Tosun might just be the striker we need him to be after all.
Subs-
Dominic Calvert-Lewin – 7
Did very well to win the penalty and overall filled in for Walcott more than efficiently in what isn’t a preferred position.