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Everton’s impressive track record on their travels has brought them closer to Europe. A second-half header from Richarlison sealed his ninth victory in 13 Premier League away games this season and kept Carlo Ancelotti’s side in contention not only for a place in the Europa League but also for qualification for the Champions League.
“At the start of the season, no one could say after 26 games that Everton would be in the top four or top five, but it is well deserved,” said Ancelotti, who says his team must improve even more to fulfill its ambitions. “Most of these players have not played a single match in the Champions League, but we are in the fight. Now there is more pressure. We fight for European places. We have worked very hard to be there and now we have to do a little more. We have to take a step forward. The position now is good, but unfortunately it is not the end of the season ”.
West Brom’s frustration is that this match could have turned out very differently if they had seized even one of the opportunities created over a long period when the relegation-threatened team was at the top. Sam Allardyce’s men were left lamenting the missed shots and an offside detected by the VAR in injury time. They need to fine-tune before a midday showdown with Newcastle United on Sunday.
Allardyce had identified Mbaye Diagne as one of the keys to West Brom’s survival, saying his team needed to improve serve to the Senegalese forward who, in turn, needed to perfect his shot.
Diagne has given West Brom a forward presence that they have lacked for most of the season, but has scored once in seven appearances since arriving on loan from Galatasaray in January. He could have improved his score in the second minute. There could be no complaints about the quality of service when Conor Gallagher stormed the right side of the Everton area and put up a beautiful cross between Michael Keane and Mason Holgate. Diagne jumped to face him, but couldn’t apply enough power, allowing Jordan Pickford to cross the goal and push his looped header.
West Brom was not discouraged. Conor Townsend made regular forays down the left, exposing Alex Iwobi’s frailty on the side. When Townsend set Matt Phillips up for a cross in the ninth minute, Ben Godfrey made a timely intervention to prevent the ball from reaching Diagne.
It was Keane’s turn to come to the rescue before Diagne could connect with a cross two minutes later after an even move from West Brom down the opposite flank.
Pickford was called into action again in the 13th minute when Phillips tested him with a low scraper from 20 yards. The hosts looked brighter and more fluid than the high-flying visitors, who staggered again in the 17th minute when Townsend launched an attack by pouncing on a loose pass from André Gomes. The move culminated with Diagne knocking down a Phillips header and turning to fire just over the bar, having held Holgate and Keane at bay. It was indicative of the way the forward destabilized his markers that Holgate was booked later in the half for diving into a tackle near the touchline.
Everton showed little acceptable threat until the latter stages of the first half. Darnell Furlong made a major block when a shot from Richarlison veered into Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s path. Three minutes later, another lucky rebound gave Calvert-Lewin an opportunity he should have seized, but the forward shot weakly, allowing Sam Johnstone to save with his foot.
West Brom started the second half with the same verve they had shown for most of the first. Diagne launched a header just over the crossbar after a long serve in the 51st minute.
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Ancelotti made changes ahead of time, retiring Iwobi and abandoning the back three as he switched to a midfield diamond. A few minutes later he replaced Abdoulaye Doucouré with Gylfi Sigurdsson. The Icelander soon orchestrated the advance, in a way that hurt Allardyce as much as Ancelotti.
After throwing a corner, Sigurdsson was allowed to pick up the punting half and send it back into the six-yard box, where Richarlison jumped into the net with little to no pressure.
Everton held West Brom at bay until injury time, when Diagne hooked the ball into the net after receiving a cross from Furlong. But a VAR review judged that some of the forward’s left toes were offside.
