Everton held on to claim a 1-1 draw at home to opponents Leicesters who dominated the late night proceedings from start to finish, boasting 65% possession as well as 18 shots to the Blues’ 8.

The Foxes started the game on the front foot, maintaining possession and playing some superb football. In particular, Harvey Barnes was a constant threat down the left hand side, making penetrating runs and attacking Mason Holgate directly who failed to have one of his better performances. This Leicester control lasted around twenty minutes until Everton finally found some outlets through Lucas Digne and Richarlison down the wings. 

The Toffees took the lead in the 30th minute thanks to a superb curling effort from James Rodriguez who bent the ball in off the post with his weaker right foot. Despite Brendan Rodgers’s men making the better start, they lacked the killer instinct that the lack of Jamie Vardy brings and Everton did well to close out the half in the lead.

The second half was a different story for Carlo’s men as Leicester turned the game in their favour, pinning the Blues in their own half for a large proportion of the game and successfully limiting them to hopeful balls up to Calvert-Lewin who was unable to make anything of them. The equaliser came in 67th minute after a barrage of attacks led to Youri Tielemans firing home under the body of Jordan Pickford who, although the shot came through a group of players, really should have done better.

On the whole, most fans will be happy to take the point and forget about the game as Leicester probably deserved the win and are a team on form with their last loss coming to Everton in December. The performance will be looked at with less praise as the tactics set out seemed to be the wrong ones. The absence of both Allan and Doucoure left a huge hole in midfield which was then occupied by Tom Davies and Andre Gomes who have proved to be less than convincing when it comes to protecting the back four and breaking up play. Both midfielders failed to make an impression in the game often being lax in possession and were unable to make tackles and interceptions.

The Everton attack was rather ineffective with Calvert-Lewin isolated and feeding off scraps and Richarlison seems to be half the player he was last season. The Brazilian is quite clearly a confidence player but when things aren’t going his way he suddenly loses the ability to beat players and have an impact on the game. The hope is that once he sees a goal go in then he will be back to his best.

The Toffees next match is against Newcastle on Saturday where Carlo Ancelotti will want to collect all three points as the Blues have the advantage of having two games in hand over the teams around them. 

Player Ratings:

Jordan Pickford – 4

Lucas Digne – 6.5

Ben Godfrey – 8 (MOTM)

Michael Keane – 7 

Yerry Mina – 7

Mason Holgate – 5

Tom Davies – 6 

Andre Gomes – 6.5

James Rodriguez – 7.5

Dominic Calvert-Lewin – 5

Richarlison – 5

Subs:

Seamus Coleman- N/A

Alexander Iwobi – 6

Gylfi Sigurdsson – N/A