Goodison blues continue as Everton drop two vital points – by Matt Townsend

Once again Everton couldn’t do the job at Goodison Park and after creating a hatful of chances and spurning most of them, were held to a damaging 1-1 draw by Crystal Palace last night as the Premier League returned.

This really was a must-win match for the Blues, with their rivals for European qualification picking up points over the weekend and Chelsea, sitting in fourth, also losing on Saturday so opening up the race again for the Champions League places. To compound the Toffees failure to win, West Ham then picked up all three points later in the evening to move into the top four and make it a five point gap between them and Everton.

When Carlo Ancelotti’s team for the game was announced Brazilian midfielder Allan’s name was missing, he wasn’t even on the bench so presumably this means he is injured again.

We don’t know how bad the injury is but with Abdoulaye Doucoure also out for probably the rest of the season, that’s a potentially significant blow. In addition, Andre Gomes who started last night then also got hurt after half an hour and had to be replaced. So now the Toffees are possibly without three of their first-choice midfield men.

In more positive injury news, there was a surprise name included in Ancelotti’s squad and that was Jean-Philippe Gbamin. The Ivorian midfielder has been out for so long that some fans might have even forgotten about him, but he seems to have finally overcome all the injury problems which have plagued him almost from the moment he signed.

Once again Ancelotti had decided to rejig his team and formation and he went with a back five in which Mason Holgate, Yerry Mina and surprisingly Michael Keane were the three centre-backs with Ben Godfrey left on the bench.

Godfrey was the obvious candidate to play on the left of a three but perhaps his omission was because the former Norwich man had been hurt just before England’s last Under-21s match. But then Tom Davies who also missed that game started in midfield.

While it feels almost heretical to be critical of him, I am beginning to wonder sometimes what Ancelotti is thinking with some of his player and tactical decisions. With Palace likely to play a traditional 4-4-2 (as they did) would it not have made sense to match them and play Godfrey to mark Zaha and Mina to handle Benteke?

Anyway, whatever the reason for those decisions another welcome return was that of James Rodriguez as the Colombian star started his first Everton match in weeks.

Rodriguez had a fine game probing and prompting behind the Blues front two of Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin. While he isn’t always as influential in matches as you might hope, when he’s on his game his flair and creativity is second-to-none. And he always seems to be at his best at Goodison – even if the team doesn’t enjoy playing at the grand old lady the Colombian forward certainly does.

He was also well supported last night by Seamus Coleman who had a fine match marauding up the right flank and providing real width and a great attacking outlet.

So after a slow start there were plenty of chances being created but the Toffees forwards seemed reluctant to take them having apparently left their shooting boots in the dressing room and throughout a first half that Everton dominated they missed chance after chance to score. While the visitor’s keeper did have a good game and made some smart saves, the Blues really should have been two or three up at the break.

Then after that goalless first half it was Palace who started the second half the brighter and better of the two teams and it looked as though they might punish Everton for their failure to take all those earlier chances.

But as so often in football perversely it was then that Everton finally scored after a sweet move was finished off by Rodriguez who squezzed the ball home not with his sublime left-foot but his right instead.

Now you felt the Blues would go on and add another goal or two and finish the match. But of course, as so often this team flatters to deceive and that second goal didn’t come.

With time ticking on Ancelotti then made some strange substitutions as he took off the two best attacking players on the night, Coleman and Rodriguez and brought on Godfrey and then Gbamin for his first run out in a royal blue shirt since August 2018.

I have no idea why he replaced both of them and what the defensive changes were supposed to do. Palace weren’t a threat they were there for the taking and the Toffees still needed the buffer of a second goal to make the points safe so why take off your chief attacking threats?

It made no sense and it’s not even as if they need a rest as Rodriguez hasn’t played any football since early March while Coleman even though he had been in international action last week has also had plenty of time on the sidelines this season. Plus, Everton don’t have another match for a week so plenty of time for players to rest and recuperate.

So now the home team started to drop a little deeper and it was then that Roy Hodgson saw his chance. He also made some changes but his were positive and one of them proved to be decisive as just moments after coming on Michy Batshuayi scored the equaliser for Palace.

Now Everton were going to regret not getting that second goal and despite some late pressure inevitably they couldn’t find a way through and two more precious points had been dropped.

There are still nine games left to play and the Blues do have a game in hand over some of their rivals but last night’s result felt like a potentially massive moment in the race for Europe and one I think Everton may come to regret at the end of the campaign.