Everton missed the chance to overhaul Tottenham Hotspur last night as this gritty draw dealt a blow to their hopes of Europa League qualification.
In truth, Brighton & Hove Albion were superior, but once again struggled to ally their reliably excellent build-up play and firm grip on possession with an incisive edge. They couldn’t find a way past Robin Olsen with any of their 23 shots and Carlo Ancelotti was forced into increasingly uncomfortable contortions simply to get ten fit players on the pitch.
Everton, in the teeth of perhaps the worst injury crisis in the league, had to do without Dominic Calvert-Lewin, with the striker joining his England team-mate Jordan Pickford on the sidelines. With André Gomes, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucouré also injured, Mason Holgate stepped up into a defensive midfield role for much of this game, until they also lost Yerry Mina to a muscle injury, which Ancelotti said would put him out for several weeks.
“Of course, the fight is more difficult now, but we are still in the fight,” the Everton manager said. He added that he was confident Pickford would be fit to face Tottenham at home on Friday and was also hopeful of welcoming back Allan, Gomes and Calvert-Lewin.
“It wasn’t easy to create clear chances,” Graham Potter, the Brighton manager, said after seeing his team fail to score for the first time in five games. “I thought our tempo was good and we were probably the team that was closer to scoring.”
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Brighton made the more emphatic start, Jakub Moder rifling a strike just wide of the post. Adam Lallana’s cross found Danny Welbeck tantalisingly unmarked at the back post, but the striker chose to take the ball first time with an acrobatic volley and scuffed the shot into the turf, taking the sting out of it for Olsen. Then Moder ran opportunistically on to a headed clearance and once again was only narrowly off target with his crisp volley.
Everton’s first real opportunity came from a sweeping transition move. From a regain in midfield, Brighton’s defensive line was caught high and Richarlison released Séamus Coleman in behind. His cross invited Tom Davies to run on to it, but he could only make a glancing contact with the header.
Brighton immediately responded with a clear chance at the other end. Leandro Trossard did well to smuggle a cross into the area under pressure, and it reached Neil Maupay, who had time to take a steadying touch and measure a shot. Just not quite as much time as he thought: Mina got out to him quickly and effected a crucial block, which nudged the shot just wide.
That was followed by a spectacular effort from Yves Bissouma, who let fly with an overhead kick from the left side of the box and grazed the roof of the net, with Olsen stranded.
Bissouma was outstanding in the first half, and when Maupay turned the ball over and Everton countered with menace, he did well to get back and win the ball from Gylfi Sigurdsson with his body facing the other way.
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Brighton had the first sight of goal after the interval, with a Maupay toe-poke deflected just wide after a clever pass by Lallana. But otherwise, the opening stages of the second half were cagey. The most notable moment came just before the hour mark, when Mina went down, and was replaced by Alex Iwobi, the only senior outfielder on the Everton bench, with Holgate shuffling back into defence.
Everton retreated deeper, understandably in the circumstances, while Brighton passed the ball with comfort and confidence and tried to find that razor edge. A swinging back-post cross from Moder was just prevented from reaching Welbeck by Holgate. The Pole was perhaps the most enterprising player on the pitch and went close for a third time, on this occasion whistling a shot over the bar from the edge of the box.
Spaces opened up for Brighton, but they couldn’t quite make them tell. Lallana missed a chance to play in Welbeck, before brilliant work from Trossard led him to tee up Lallana, only for Coleman to make a perfectly timed, smothering block. Everton still carried a threat of their own, and Robert Sánchez needed to be alert to deny James Rodríguez’s angled shot after he had taken down Coleman’s cross with a beautiful touch.
Ben Godfrey made a lunging block to deny Welbeck, before Bissouma picked up the loose ball and pulled it back for the unmarked Maupay, who flicked the ball up to himself then somehow poked it wide from eight yards.
Brighton then put together a clever move from a half-cleared corner, with Lallana scooping a cross that was met by Lewis Dunk’s flick header, only for the scrambling Olsen to tip the ball over the bar.
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Lallana fired over from the edge of the area as Brighton searched for some late incision. Instead it was Everton who almost stole it at the death, as Iwobi sent a left-footed shot fizzing just over Sánchez’s crossbar. This was a point hard earned, but for Ancelotti, those reinforcements cannot return soon enough.
How they rated
Brighton & Hove Albion (3-4-1-2): R Sánchez 6 — B White 6, L Dunk 6, J Veltman 7 — P Gross 6, A Lallana 6, Y Bissouma 8, J Moder 8 (D Burn 88min) — L Trossard 7 — N Maupay 6 (A Jahanbakhsh 88), D Welbeck 6. Booked Dunk
Everton (5-3-1-1): R Olsen 7 — S Coleman 7, B Godfrey 7, Y Mina 6 (A Iwobi 58, 6), M Keane 6, L Digne 7 — T Davies 6 (N Broadhead 88), M Holgate 8, G Sigurdsson 6 — J Rodríguez 7 — Richarlison 6. Booked Keane, Holgate
Referee D England.
