Brighton & Hove Albion had just scored their third goal when the first chant of “sack the board” started to ring around Goodison Park.
By the time the visitors plundered a fourth moments later to heap embarrassment and humiliation on a bedraggled, bereft Everton side, the mood had turned more mutinous. The chorus of abuse was ratcheted up a level, a blue smoke bomb was hurled onto the playing surface and Frank Lampard could barely watch any more of the squalid capitulation unfolding in front of him.
Lampard will find himself under scrutiny, just as all the managers in Everton’s recent history have done when results such as this arrive, but this latest ignominy has been long in the making.
There is no disgrace in losing to a Brighton side buoyed by an infusion of youth, most notably from teenager Evan Ferguson, yet the pathetic manner in which the hosts leaked three goals in six minutes at the start of the second half to deepen relegation concerns reached new depths of ineptitude.
In many respects, Brighton — who scored four goals in a top flight away match for the first time in their history — are the team Everton should be, with the success of their evolution actually serving to damn the aspirants in these parts.
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They were promoted to the Premier League the season after Farhad Moshiri, absent again tonight, first purchased Everton with the promise of transforming the club’s fortunes by spending a barrowload of cash. It has not worked and, in the six seasons since, it is Brighton who have steadied themselves by cleverly manipulating the transfer market and nurturing promising talent.
A change of manager does not prompt panic, as it does at Everton, where a pantomime search usually ensues. There is a discernible playing style dependent on nimble, intelligent footballers who are comfortable in possession, with Roberto De Zerbi now seeking to apply tweaks to the firm foundations Graham Potter, his predecessor as manager, bequeathed by playing out more from the back.
That approach paid handsome dividends. Brighton were an absolute joy to behold. Everton an absolute shambles.
After the loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Boxing Day, there was support from the Goodison hierarchy for Lampard, and against Manchester City at the weekend a spirited rearguard action was embellished by Demarai Gray’s bolt from the blue.
Yet it seems that 1-1 draw at the Etihad was a result which emboldened Everton more than it should have. Of course, there was an onus to be proactive and stir the senses of the crowd but when asked to do that, this side routinely struggles.
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Reverting to a back four was Lampard’s call, stripping away the solidity from Saturday in favour of trying to press high and stifle the visitors at source. The complication came with Brighton’s knack of playing around that pressure, coupled with the fact there is no way of knowing just what Everton’s squad, which is made up of signings from seven different managers, is going to serve up.
They fell behind when a switch of play to the left from Moisés Caicedo lulled Nathan Patterson into thinking he could reach the ball before Kaoru Mitoma. The Everton right back then realised he had erred and watched in horror as Mitoma left him trailing in his slipstream, sent the covering Conor Coady the wrong way and finished with aplomb through the legs of James Tarkowski on the goalline.
De Zerbi showed bravery in handing Ferguson, signed from Bohemians two years ago, a full Premier League debut, while Ecuador international Jeremy Sarmiento made only his second start playing just off the striker.
Together with Levi Colwill and Caicedo, Brighton had four players aged 21 or under in their starting XI, which was their most in a league match since May 2011 when they were in League One. All this and with returning World Cup-winner Alexis Mac Allister restricted to a late cameo.
Ferguson came close to scoring Brighton’s second with a left-foot shot that struck the base of the post but did not have to wait long for his goal. It arrived in the 51st minute when Pervis Estupiñán threaded a pass to Sarmiento, who nipped ahead of Idrissa Gueye, rounded the leaden-footed Tarkowski and crossed for the 18-year-old Ferguson to dispatch inside six yards.
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“Ferguson played a fantastic game, he’s got big, big potential,” De Zerbi said, having first admonished his side by picking holes in the first-half display that no one else had spotted. “He can become a great player, a great striker.”
It was Ferguson’s pass to the excellent Solly March that allowed the midfielder to cut inside Vitalii Mykolenko, Tarkowski then slipping to invite a placed shot into the corner of the net.
The tumult was then completed when Gueye severely undercooked a backpass, allowing Pascal Gross to run through and dink an exquisite finish. An injury-time penalty from Gray, after the goalkeeper Robert Sánchez fouled Alex Iwobi, brought ironic cheers though, by then, this famous old ground was quickly emptying.
Reality would kick back in with more chants of “sack the board”. The new year has brought with it familiar problems.
Everton (4-4-2): J Pickford 6 — N Patterson 4 (sub: S Coleman 63min, 6), C Coady 5, J Tarkowski 4, V Mykolenko 4 — A Iwobi 5, I Gueye 4 (N Maupay 64, 5), T Davies 6 (I Price 58, 6) — D McNeil 4 (A Doucouré 58, 5), D Calvert-Lewin 5 (E Simms 83), D Gray 6. Booked Iwobi, Price, Doucouré.
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Brighton (4-2-3-1): R Sánchez 7 — J Veltman 7 (T Lamptey 71), L Dunk 8, L Colwill 8, P Estupiñán 8 — M Caicedo 8, P Gross 8 — S March 8 (A Moran 78), J Sarmiento 8 (A Mac Allister 62), K Mitoma 8 (A Lallana 78) — E Ferguson 9 (J Enciso 71). Booked Ferguson.
Referee A Marriner.
