Everton, Bournemouth Dish Premier League Humdinger At Vitality

BOURNEMOUTH, England- Everton and Bournemouth dished up another humdinger of a Premier League encounter with both teams reduced to 10 men in a chaotic 2-2 draw at the Vitality Stadium.

Brazilian winger Richarlison was sent off on 41 minutes after an off-the-ball coming together with Bournemouth defender Adam Smith.

And Smith saw red in the second half for pulling down the breaking Theo Walcott - after the same Everton player had scored on 51 minutes to give his side the lead.

Michael Keane doubled Everton’s advantage on 66 minutes but Joshua King dragged Bournemouth back into the contest when he scored from the spot.

Cherries defender Nathan Ake tapped home to equalise with 11 minutes remaining after Callum Wilson’s header had clattered a post.

The Toffees had the first opportunity of the game when Richarlison and Cenk Tosun combined to transfer the ball across the pitch and find Leighton Baines stealing forward down the left. The full-back took aim but saw Steve Cook get a vital block on the shot.

Everton had the next effort on goal, too, Tosun unable to keep down a volley just before the quarter-hour mark after the energetic Seamus Coleman had barrelled into the box to flick on a cross from Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Early pressure 

The Toffees had seen off a bout of early pressure at this point, Keane leaping to clear from his penalty area and the visitors generally hounding and preventing the Cherries from functioning in their characteristically fluid style.

Wilson, though, appeared certain to put the hosts in front on 16 minutes. Smith sprinted upfield from right-back and sent a slick ball infield to Ryan Fraser. 

The Scot swept play on to Wilson, in space and with time to openi up his body and size up the target only to lift his strike over Jordan Pickford’s bar.

Wilson’s fellow striker King then headed over at the back post after David Brooks’ run and cross down the right

Coleman, Baines and Richarlison engaged in a form of particularly useful head tennis to see out the danger after Fraser slung a free-kick into the box when the magnificent Idrissa Gana Gueye was harshly penalised following a challenge on King.

Richarlison’s dismissal before the interval altered the narrative but it was Everton – or more precisely, Coleman with a shot which looped up off Fraser and into the gloves of Asmir Begovic- who had the fist dig at goal after half-time.

Brooks then strode into the box after neat interplay between Andrew Surman and Fraser to rifle a deflected shot narrowly wide.

And when the resulting corner was only partially cleared Steve Cook returned an audacious overhead kick which Pickford clung to underneath his bar.

Rather than savour his good work – and try to eat up some time – the goalkeeper thrashed the ball downfield to send Walcott on his travels once more.

Close view 

Smith had seen this picture, before, and was in no mood to watch a repeat. The defender tugged at Walcott, dragging down the Everton man – and promptly becoming the second player to have a close-up view of Mason’s red card.

Baines took the free-kick and saw it pawed out from inside the right post by Begovic’s shovel of a left hand.

No matter. Shortly after Everton won another set-piece on the right. Bournemouth – to quote Ian Snodin - were ‘sleeping in’. Alarm bells would have sounded for the hosts when the Toffees restarted play quickly, with Sigurdsson escaping down the right.

The midfielder stood up a cross and Keane – up for the initial set-piece – charged into the middle to head low into the net.

Pickford saved one-on-one from Wilson and comfortably kept out an opportunistic Fraser drive – before Bournemouth halved their deficit from the penalty spot.

Striker King picked himself up after receiving a nudge in the back from Baines to convert inside Pickford’s left-hand post.

The home side scented blood and after a concerted period of pressure won a corner on the right. Wilson’s near-post dart was found by Fraser’s delivery, the striker leaping to head against the far post.

Ake was first to react, finishing coolly across BLues Pickford. The positive Silva threw on Bernard for an Everton debut with the visitors targeting a decisive third goal.

But with Keane taken off on a stretcher following a long delay at the start of 10 minutes' stoppage time – and Kurt Zouma introduced for his first Toffees action – there would be no winner, that despite substitute Dominic Calvert-Lewin nearly getting the better of Begovic in the box and Sigurdsson curling narrowly over the top.

 Numerical deficit 

Walcott had it all on his shoulders. Everton were down to 10 men against a Bournemouth team which moves the ball about rapidly.

Marco Silva’s side had to manage their numerical deficit, while using their skill and nous to conjure something tangible in attack.

The exceptional Cenk Tosun treated the ball like the most valuable object in the world as he received possession from Gylfi Sigurdsson’s accurate pass to the right.

Tosun waited his moment, watching Walcott gallop in behind Nathan Ake, then handed on the baton to his express teammate.

Walcott did not break stride. He had Ake breathing down his neck, red-and-black shirts in his peripheral vision and giant goalkeeper Asmir Begovic in his way.

Plenty of responsibility resting on his athlete’s frame, too.

Who knows what goes through a footballer’s mind at such moments, perhaps nothing? But, just possibly, Walcott recalled defeating Southampton ‘keeper Alex McCarthy at his near-post last week.

The forward opted for the same route to goal this time, thumping the ball low to Begovic’s left – and into the net.

Big players deliver at big moments.

Top-class Idrissa

"Every team needs an Idrissa Gana Gueye,” was Ian Snodin’s verdict after watching the midfielder’s eyeballs out display in Everton’s final pre-season friendly display against Valenica.

Tom Davies was similarly effusive about the Senegalese following the Toffees’ success over Southampton last week.

“Top class,” was Davies’s succinct verdict on his engine-room colleague.

Gueye showed against Bournemouth the full gamut of attributes which make him so popular among his fellow pros.

Everton’s immediate mission here was to drain the energy and ambition from a home team which is a dangerous animal with its tail up.

Within three minutes, Gana was intercepting crucially in his own box after Ryan Fraser had escaped down the left to cross.

He took a hefty blow in the line of duty early on, too, haring across the field to strangle a Bournemouth counter at its inception.

Gueye was purposeful with the ball at his feet, smiting passes into Gylfi Sigurdsson and demonstrating terrific poise, awareness and technique to feed a return pass into Theo Walcott’s express charge up the right flank during the opening half.

The 28-year-old’s protective instincts are readily evident in his smart positioning, the way he places himself to intercept or stick in a toe and nark opponents denied a moment to think, never mind get the ball under their spell.

Watch Gana run back towards his own goal, too. When Bournemouth were on the charge – and they drive upfield at some rate of knots – the Everton player hurtled back towards his own goal, shifting every bit as quickly as he might when sniffing an opportunity at the other end.

Pivotal role

Don’t underestimate his pivotal role in enabling the Blues’ full-backs to raid forward with impunity, either.

Gana is happy to split his two centre-halves, in this case Mason Holgate and Michael Keane, allowing one of the pair to step out from the back and feed the men in advanced positions. 

Ian Wright talks of how Arsene Wenger’s arrival at Arsenal “turned black and white into colour”.

The former England striker’s words feel relevant watching Marco Silva’s Everton team.

Silva is freshly in the door but his players are clearly getting a handle on what their boss expects from them.

Everton have direction and purpose when they cross the halfway line. There is a commitment to pushing on one of the full-backs and exploiting the width of the pitch, while widemen Richarlison and Theo Walcott float inside and out, never standing still and a real nuisance for their opponents.

Cenk Tosun’s remit is to work across the field, with Gylfi Sigurdsson knitting things together in the spaces behind his striker.

It is in the way the Toffees immediately shift their mindset to suit changing circumstances which perhaps indicates this is a team with a very definite idea of what it is doing.

Sigurdsoon sacrificed

Gyfli Sigurdsson was sacrificed for defender Mason Holgate when Phil Jagielka was sent off at Wolverhampton Wanderers a fortnight ago.

He responded by delivering his side’s standout performance seven days later, when Everton beat Southampton.

Sigurdsson would have come to the south coast in the mood to stamp his creative wiles all over this contest, then.

The Icelander was steadily exerting his influence, too, the fulcrum of so many of Everton’s attacks and the man who panicked Asmir Begovic into a dicey punch following a neat chipped cross from the right.

Then, on 41 minutes, Sigurdsson and Everton had their world turned upside down.

No sooner was referee Lee Mason whipping out his red, than Sigurdsson was tearing across to the left, ready to plug the gap left by Richarlison and dog it out up and down the flank.

He did not abandon his day job altogether, though. Silva wants multi-dimensional footballers and in Everton's Club-record signing he has one.

Sigurdsson came in off his touchline whenever possible and, tellingly, had a hand in both the Toffees' goals.

-Report by www.evertonfc.com