The Guardian - UK (2022-05-02)

Monday 2 May 2022 The Guardian •

43

Richarlison’s lightning sharpness

could yet prove diff erence in

scramble to avoid the drop

Analysis

Jonathan Liew

Might Everton still

have won this game

had Richarlison

not conjured a

goal out of his own

irrepressible will?

Richarlison

celebrates scoring

the priceless

winner at

Goodison Park

keep them at bay when it came. There
was a slice of luck, too. The England
goalkeeper was beaten by his inter-
national colleague Mount when the
No 10 struck the inside of one post
and then the other with a half-volley
from Havertz’s knock-down.
The rebound fell for Azpilicueta
but Pickford, having leapt up and
sprinted across the goalmouth, saved
the defender’s shot on the line. Mina
hacked clear and, from the resulting
corner, the ball dropped to R üdiger at
the back post. Pickford saved bravely
at point-blank range, injuring himself
in the process. He tipped over from
Loftus-Cheek’s 25-yard drive and
denied the substitute Mateo Kovacic
during seven minutes of stoppage
time that turned Goodison apoplec-
tic when it was announced.
Gray could have soothed Everton
nerves when breaking into the area
with fi ve minutes left following good
work by Doucour é and the substitute
Salom ón Rond ón only to shoot over.
But Everton held out and fi ght on.

Saving it

for when

it really

matters

Jordan

Pickford

keeps out

Antonio

Rüdiger’s

eff ort, one

of many fi ne

saves by the

Everton No 1

MICHAEL REGAN/

GETTY

Everton

3-4-2-1

Pickford; Coleman•,

Mina, Holgate•;

Iwobi, Doucouré,

Delph• (Allan 71),

Mykolenko; Gray

(Alli 90), Gordon;

Richarlison (Rondón 80)

Subs not used

Begovic, Kenny, Keane,

Calvert-Lewin, Davies,

Bra nthwaite

Chelsea

3-4-2-1

Mendy; Azpilicueta•

(Pulisic 68), Silva,

Rüdiger•; James,

Jorginho (Kovacic ht),

Loftus-Cheek, Alonso•;

Mount•, Havertz•;

Werner (Ziyech 68)

Subs not used

Arrizabalaga, Lukaku,

Chalobah, Saúl, Kenedy,

Sarr

Referee Kevin Friend Attendance 39,256

United players

to stage lap of

appreciation

despite unrest

Manchester United’s players will per-

form a lap of appreciation following

their game against Brentford this

evening despite being aware it could

lead to a torrent of abuse from sup-

porters given what has been a hugely

disappointing season for the club.

United have three games remaining

with the visit of Brentford the last at

Old Traff ord, before trips to Brighton

and Crystal Palace. It is customary

for teams to mark their fi nal appear-

ance at home with a post-match

stroll around the pitch but there had

been an expectation that United

would ditch theirs given results and

perfor mances since August. United

are sixth going into the game this

evening and have all but given up on

qualifying for the Champions League

having won only four of their past 11

league games.

Ralf Rangnick took charge on

an interim basis after Ole Gunn ar

Solskjær’s sacking in November , a

limp exit from the Champions League

following defeat by Atlético Madrid in

the last 16 , and a string of displays by

the team has led to criticism regard-

ing the players’ conditioning and

commitment.

All in all it has been a misera ble

nine months or so for those associated

with the 20-time champions, but

what is meant to be a feel good lap

of appreciation will still take place

this evening, with it felt within the

United dressing room that not doing

so would lead to accusations of the

players snubbing the supporters.

How many supporters will be in

attendance when the fi nal whistle

blows is another matter given a

further protest against the Glazers

is expected to take place at Old

Traff ord today , this time with fans

being asked to leave their seats in

the 73rd-minute of the contest – 17

minutes from the end to mark 17 years

since the Americans took charge of

the club. It would be no surprise if a

good number of those who take part

in the protest use the walkout as an

excuse to get home early.

▲ Fans protest against the Glazers

outside Old Traff ord last month

13

Only Liverpool

(18) and

Newcastle

(15) have won

more Premier

League home

points (13)

since Frank

Lampard’s

fi rst game

at Goodison

Park

3

Three of

Chelsea’s six

league losses

this season

have come in

their last six

games – the

same number

of defeats

they suff ered

in their fi rst

28 games

wilt sooner or later. If you can’t

keep the ball, and you can’t

keep the ball out, and your main

goalscoring centre-forward has

been injured for much of the

season, then you are relying on a

lot coincidences to go your way.

And 45 minutes into this tense

and occasionally tetchy game,

Everton’s luck looked like it was

running out.

The odds were against

Richarlison. But then, the odds

have been against him before.

And in a grim season for Everton,

they have so often been forced to

dip into their Brazilian forward’s

inexhaustible desire, his ability to

make something out of nothing.

It was his 92nd-minute goal

that rescued a point at home

to Leicester two weeks ago.

His equaliser that rescued a

hopeless cause against Arsenal

in December. His lightning

sharpness, often in a lone forward

role, that has often been the

diff erence between Everton and

total oblivion.

C

ould it yet save them

here? Certainly

you could feel the

galvanising eff ect

of Richarlison’s goal

on his team mates

over the rest of the game. Yerry

Mina was a towering presence in

defence. Abdoulaye Doucour é

won everything in midfi eld.

And most notably of all Jordan

Pickford had one of those games

in which he temporarily leaves

the mortal plane and starts pulling

off outlandish, otherworldly

saves in quick succession.

After keeping Everton in the

game, it was fi tting that with

98 minutes on the clock it was

Pickford who saw this one out,

smothering the ball in his own

area as Goodison pleaded for

Kevin Friend’s fi nal whistle. The

statisticians will tell you Everton

got lucky here: outplayed in

terms of possession and outshot

in terms of chances, ransacking a

win courtesy of a lucky defl ection

and an inspired goalkeep er. The

counter-argument is that the last

fi ve games of a relegation battle

is no time to be worrying about

percentages.

One of the curiosities of

this Everton squad, for all the

frequent assertions that it is too

good to go down, is how many of

them have endured the pain of

relegation before. Michael Keane

with Burnley. Andros Townsend

with QPR and Newcastle.

Doucour é with Watford, Salom ón

Rond ón with West Brom, Pickford

with Sunderland.

This is a group of players who

know what it means to stare into

the abyss. And perhaps nobody

knows it better than Richarlison,

who at full time bore not the

expression of triumph or elation,

but simply the look of a man on a

long journey, one who has come

too far to turn back now.

I

t was the last trial. The last

chance. After countless

rebuff s and rejections,

a 12-hour bus journey

to Belo Horizonte for an

open training session with

América’s under-17 side awaited

him. If he failed to make the grade

at the Brazilian club then not only

would he have no real future in

football, but he also had no way of

getting home. A one-way ticket was

all Richarlison de Andrade could

aff ord. No safety net. No second

chances.

Perhaps in a parallel timeline,

Richarlison does not impress the

América scouts that morning.

Perhaps he turns an ankle and is

forced to limp to the sidelines,

dejected and distraught. Perhaps

he hitches a lift back to his home

town of Nova Ven écia, just off the

eastern seaboard of Brazil, and goes

back to selling sweets from a cart.

Perhaps like many of his hometown

friends, he ends up running drugs,

in prison or in the ground.

And so, a minute into the

second half at Goodison Park,

Richarlison is on another journey.

Chelsea have the ball and are

working it across the defence to

C ésar Azpilicueta, just as they

have done in a thousand training

sessions and match situations

before. Richarlison knows that

his chances of winning the ball,

on his own, against a Champions

League-winning backline,

are almost non-existent. But

something deep within, some voice

from a not-so-distant past, tells him

he has no choice. And so he chases.

Azpilicueta hesitates on the

ball. That fraction of a second is all

that Richarlison needs to swallow

up the ground between them and

throw a hopeful leg at the ball.

That yard of fi ne-tuned pace is

the diff erence between the ball

defl ecting harmlessly away towards

the touchline and ricocheting back

towards him, giving him a clear

run on goal. As the ball hits the

net and Goodison Park explodes,

Richarlison picks up a billowing

blue smoke canister and hurls it

back into a delirious crowd.

So go the margins. Might

Everton still have won this game

had Richarlison not conjured a

goal out of his own irrepressible

will? Maybe, even if they had

22% possession and barely a

third of the shots. Might they

still have retained their Premier

League status had they not won

this game? Maybe, even if a

draw would have left them four

points behind a rampant Burnley

side. But like pretty much every

Jamie Jackson

Sachin Nakrani

challenge Everton have faced

this season, you would have to

bet against them.

In a way this has been Everton’s

predicament all season: a tyranny

of low percentages, of attacks

that are doomed to fi zzle out and

a defence that will inevitably