Lots to praise today. Even before the penalty it felt better than the usual first-half performance. More energy, tried to be a bit more creative, and best of all we were creating some chances. To me it didn't feel like Podence has totally clicked with the rest of the forwards or got used to our style of play yet; not that big a surprise hasn't had that much time with the team, but it seemed to add something to our game. He cut inside rather than outside and a nice bit of skill won us the penalty which was dispatched excellently.
Back three was superb throughout, Boly especially. Thought the wing-backs were quite (Doc didn't do much at all I think?) but we were so dominant in the middle Everton couldn't get the ball out into any threatening area. Neves was phenomenal and Dendoncker all over - added the threat from set pieces which is what we tried to do against Arsenal and failed. Good delivery by Neto! Think I was hesitant to criticise Moutinho before but dropping him today was the right choice, hopefully Neto's injury isn't too bad. Jota should have scored his first chance but did well on the second, should help his confidence. Intelligent play to set up Traore who should score but we were out of sight, could have scored 5 if we wanted.
We were good but Everton were very bad, has to be said. Midfield was weak, defence tepid and torn to shreds time after time particularly towards the end. Might be on the beach but their past three games doesn't bode well for the future - shit performances all around (Pickford is crazily bad now, Joe Hart-esque rise and fall in a third of the time) and the tactics were unclear. Baines was out of position and midfield in a weird shape. I missed the start so didn't see what formation Sky thought they were lining up with but had no clue watching. I couldn't tell what role Davies was meant to play, seemed to be all over whilst bringing nothing, used to think he had good potential but was crap.
Nice win overall, pleasing day! Hopefully Spurs and Arsenal draw.
