Everton have raised the stakes with an extraordinary 5-1 win at Brighton, which changes the shape of the bottom of the Premier League while also raising the question of exactly where this has been hiding all season.
It has looked for several weeks as though the ultimate decision over who will get relegated from the Premier League would be which teams among the rabble would not actually be able to dig out a win, and Southampton. None of those still labouring near the bottom of the table with three or four games of the season can reasonably argue that they haven’t had a chance. The bottom five have won two out of their last combined 25 games.
All three of their Premier League wins under Sean Dyche prior to their Bank Holiday Monday trip to Brighton had been 1-0, and the biggest problem Everton have had of late is that the last of these had come two and half months ago. Their previous match, a 2-2 draw at Leicester, seemed to betray all the insecurities that have left both teams looking so prone, from James Maddison’s dismal penalty to Dominic Calvert-Lewin missing an open goal from two yards out.
Brighton controlled possession throughout the whole of the first half, but to little tangible effect. They seemed to have an idea in their heads that crosses into the Everton penalty area was their best route to goal, but those crosses repeatedly came to nothing as Everton’s big, bruising, extremely experienced central defenders tidied up with ease.
Brighton kept coming. They hit the woodwork twice. Pickford was not having one of those days when he has a rush of blood to the head and does something eccentric which goes horribly wrong.
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