Review of the Ipswich 0–2 Everton game and immediate reaction: Ndiaye and Keane score in the win

After the international break, Everton played their first of seven games against teams outside the top six. After this run, Liverpool, City, Chelsea, and Arsenal will all play four games in December. It’s important to get some points in October and November. The first game is today at Portman Road against Ipswich.

This is the third game in a row that Everton has played away from home and not lost. Even though the draw at Leicester in the pouring rain was a good result, it meant that Everton had now lost all 15 away games in all competitions since beating Burnley 2-0 in December of last year. It goes without saying that a win would have been great to break that curse.

It had been 20 games since Ipswich last won a Premier League game, which was 1-0 at home against Middlesbrough in April 2002. They still hadn’t won their first game of the season. The only thing separating Ipswich from Everton is one point. They have played four draws in a row, but their last game was a 4-1 loss to West Ham.

Iliman Ndiaye took his place on the left side, even though he had a small injury while playing for Senegal’s national team. James Garner and Orel Mangala were traded for Vitaly Mykolenko and Idrissa Gueye. Cornish fullbacks Nathan Patterson and Seamus Coleman come back to the bench. As for the other big story, Jarrad Branthwaite’s continued absence was due to a muscle problem.

Folks at Finch Farm are still using the treatment room a lot. Back and foot problems kept James Garner and Tim Iroegbunam from playing. Nathan Patterson, Armando Broja, and Youssef Chermiti were also still not eligible.

Three players were changed for Ipswich: Luke Woolfenden, Cameron Burgess, and Ben Johnson and Jacob Greaves were taken off. Nathan Broadhead, a former Everton youth player who currently plays for Manchester United, was on the bench.

What Happened?
IT problems caused the match to be delayed, which makes you wonder what the heck that was all about! Apparently, the turnstiles weren’t working. In contrast, the Everton fans who went to East used the fifteen minutes to sing louder in preparation for the teams’ entrance.

When the game started, Michael Oliver was in charge, and Ed Sheeran was watching close. At the start of the game, Everton was in control and happy to keep the ball and put pressure on the Tractor Boys. However, Ipswich’s counterattack gave Jack Clarke a chance, but his shot went high over the goal.

Calvin Phillips gave Everton’s first chance to Calvert Lewin, but the striker should have done better when Muric came charging at him. The next play involved Ndiaye setting up McNeil, but the forward missed a great chance because he took an extra touch that was quickly blocked.

Another mistake by Ipswich, this time in the box, let Everton get another chance. Instead, Iliman Ndiaye received the gift, and this time the Senegal international made a great shot that went over the goalkeeper. People in Everton were thrilled to have a new hero.

The fans were thrilled, and the goal gave the Toffees energy to play better. Calvert Lewin was in again, but Muric blocked his shot very well. It was easy to get past Ipswich, and Everton needed to take advantage of that. Amar Hutchison quickly attacked back, and Michael Keane got a yellow card to end the chance.

Jack Clarke wriggled his way into the box and kicked McNeil in the leg, which is similar to how Calvert Lewin didn’t call a flag against Newcastle. While VAR was being used, the penalty call was reversed, which was good for Everton. Finally, some justice! Everton fans were happy!

The choice seemed to calm down the Ipswich fans, who became much quieter. This gave Everton fans a chance to sing “Spirit of the Blues.” There was a good play by Jack Harrison, and Ipswich blocked his whipped ball into the box. After that, the corner kick was blocked, and McNeil made an amazing move that set up Michael Keane, who smashed the ball into the near post.

In the last few minutes of the half, Ipswich tried to get a goal back, but the Everton defense stood strong. Due to some careless play by Doucoure, Ipswich got a late free kick. Calvin Phillips set up the shot, but it went over the goal as six extra minutes were called. Ipswich had lost all control of the game, and Everton quickly scored to make it a halftime score.

When the second half started, it looked like things were moving pretty quickly. That’s what Everton tried to do by keeping the ball: calm things down. You could tell that the next goal was important, and both teams were aware of that.

Callvert Lewin made a good run that put pressure on the Ipswich goal, but Muric was able to keep it safe. Doucoure provided a nice pass to Calvert Lewin, but the striker was unable to score.

Ipswich made another careless move that put Ndiaye in on goal, but he couldn’t beat Muric. At the hour mark, Ipswich had to make a change. Burns and Clark came on for Burns and O’Shea.

Ipswich had better control of the ball, but they couldn’t get past the Everton defense. With the Blues sitting deep to try to stop the Ipswich charge, it was clear that Everton’s plan was to go on the counterattack. Ipswich made more moves, with Clarke being replaced by Szmodics and Calvin Phillips being replaced by Jack Taylor.

On the side of the box, Iliman Ndiaye was tackled, and Doucoure was unable to turn in Dwight McNeil’s cross. After Ipswich quickly mounted a counterattack, Delap fired the ball just over the bar. Ipswich was excited about the chance and pushed for a key goal. Almost happened when Burgess’ shot just missed the goal.

George Hirst replaced Delap as Ipswich made their last change. Delap had been scoring lately, so keeping him from scoring was a good job. When Hutchison produced a corner, it was sent in low, but Pickford easily blocked Chapman’s shot.

Sean Dyche made his first change by taking Ndiaye off the field and putting Orel Mangala in his place. This is a repeat of the famous Brentford game. Fans of Everton would have to pray that something different would happen. Mangala gave away a free kick, but Tarkowski did a great job of clearing it.

It wasn’t fun for Calvert Lewin to hold up the ball so that his players could take a break. Ipswich had been in charge for the last fifteen minutes, but no one was really afraid that they were going to score soon. At least until Jack Taylor made his way into the middle of the field and hit a low shot that went into the corner. Pickford saw it coming and jumped well to stop it.

As the fans of Everton raised their voices, four minutes of extra time were declared. Taylor cut Ashley Young down with his sword and got a yellow card for it. For the third time, Calvert Lewin tried to score, but Muric stopped him. That was the last action of the game, as Michael Oliver blew the whistle to end it.

Everton Man of the Match: Michael Keane has been playing really well lately, and today he was even better. There has been a lot of talk about Jarrad Branthwaite’s return. He scored a great goal, but Everton kept the lead they had built up in the first half thanks to strong defense and passing the ball around from the back. With Keane playing so well, Dyche must be glad that Branthwaite can get the time he needs to heal.

Right Away Response
There was a lot of talk last year about how Everton had one of the most likely goals to score but didn’t. They were almost at the top of the league in that area, but they were at the bottom of the league when it came to goals scored. Today, we got two goals and had an xG of 1.23. Two goals were scored against Crystal Palace, and the xG was 0.89. We played the same way against Newcastle and didn’t score, and we got one goal at Leicester with an xG of 1.1. We had an xG of 7.0 going into this match, and we scored 7. A big improvement over last year, and things have only gotten better as the season has gone on. We’ll see what happens.

Regarding all of the Micheal Oliver called a penalty on Dwight McNeil because he put his foot in the way of Jack Clarke’s shot. That was the most important play of the first half. The situation was the same as Dan Burn’s block on Calvert Lewin at Goodison Park. The video assistant referee was called on again, and there was a moment when Everton fans thought that unfairness might show its ugly head. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and the punishment was thrown out. This week, Howard Webb claimed that refereeing errors were down by 80% this year and perhaps we are now seeing more consistency in the calls being made by the men in the middle. Good luck!

Team selection has been a talking point throughout the season and it can be argued throughout Sean Dyche’s tenure. The gaffer goes on relentlessly about player experience being so critical for success in the Premier League. Today, Nathan Patterson was overlooked ahead of the aging Ashley Young, Idrissa Gueye was selected over Orel Mangala and Jesper Lindstrom was not even in the squad. It has to be said, Dyche got it right today.