04 November 2023 , 17:34
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The only luck Everton had was of the bad kind as Brighton scored late on to deny them victory.
Sean Dyche’s game plan worked for 84 minutes at Goodison Park until Brighton netted with a fortunate deflected goal from Kaoru Mitoma. Roberto De Zerbi’s Seagulls will argue they deserved a share of the points because of the way their injury-hit side kept battling.
But it’s hard not to feel sorry for Everton the way they executed their plan after taking a seventh-minute lead through Vitalii Mykolenko. They were content to allow Brighton the vast majority of possession, banking on their belief that they could keep them at bay.
Everton had commanding performances all over the pitch from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who is proving to be a dream for Dyche, to James Tarkowski, who headed and kicked everything that came his way.
The Blues have only lost two of their last eight games in all competitions and it is a sign of their progress that they were disappointed to draw with Brighton. The Seagulls only have three points from their last five league games, but there was plenty in this display to please De Zerbi.
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Brighton recalled Bart Verbruggen in one of four changes and the Dutch Under-21 goalkeeper failed to hold anything Everton fired at him, parrying an early effort from Abdoulaye Doucoure.
This contributed to Everton’s opener after just seven minutes when Verbruggen parried Myklenko’s initial shot and the Ukrainian fired home only his second goal for Everton and first for the Blues in 18 months off the unfortunate Lewis Dunk.
Everton were disappointed to settle for a point against BrightonBrighton thought they had levelled on 14 minutes when Dunk superbly volleyed home a floated free-kick on the left side of the area, only for Evan Ferguson to be judged to have been offside by VAR Michael Oliver after far too long a wait.
Everton thought they might have had a penalty when Dwight McNeil went down under pressure from Joel Veltman, but referee Tim Robinson and VAR rightly gave nothing.
Robinson seemed to think most Everton tackles were fouls and Jordan Pickford touched a Dunk free-kick over from one suspect piece of officiating. Everton were creaking as they began to tire under Brighton’s pressure and Dyche perhaps should have made his substitutions earlier.
The visitors levelled six minutes from time in the most cruel of fashion when Mitoma’s cross from the left looped in off Young, giving Pickford no chance.