Analysis: Everton draw a point gained but felt like two dropped

Hands up who feared the worst going to Everton on the opening day? C’mon, be honest. Even the most myopic among you could find reasons to talk yourselves out of getting a point at Goodison Park. Those on the coach certainly had enough time to assess the pitfalls during the six-hour crawl up to Merseyside in the club coaches. So it is therefore a measure of just how well Watford played, testament to the way they were so astutely set up by Quique Sanchez Flores and how they learned from successive defeats to Sevilla and Cardiff that the much smoother journey home was consumed by talk of how the Hornets should really have pocketed all three points. There could have been few complaints if they did.

This wasn’t a smash-and-grab performance, there was no parking of the swish team bus: it was a masterclass in how to play away from home. It had the head coach’s continental, compact style of playing stamped all over it. Agitated and restless Everton fans had given up the ghost when Odion Ighalo, with stunning efficiency, put Watford back in front with 420 seconds of normal time remaining. They had started to stream out.

And that should have been it, it should have the cue for those remaining Toffees to clear their throats and prepare to jeer off the home team as they did at half time. Just hold on, lads. There are only seven minutes remaining, seven minutes between you and opening day win that would have represented so much more than three points. It wasn’t to be and it’s difficult to be harsh on a team who played with such energy, spirit and no shortage of skill but having engineered a winning position, they should have seen the game out. Most would have bitten your hand off had you been offered a point before kick-off but this felt like two points dropped. You only had to watch Troy Deeney and Ighalo sink to their knees, when Arouna Kone broke Watford hearts with four minutes left on the clock, to see that.

The class of 2006/07 conceded 16 points in the last nine minutes of Premier League matches. They ended up ten points from safety. The top-flight of English football is a cruel mistress and status in it can be achieved or relinquished in the dying moments of matches.

Kone’s equaliser, however, should not detract from the execution by the players of a Sanchez Flores’ tactical masterclass. They have clearly bought into his methods judging by the way they carried out his instructions to the letter. Allowing Phil Jagielka and John Stones to have possession unchallenged, Watford cut off the supply to the Everton wide players and their midfield carriers, forcing them to go long to Romelu Lukaka. They then snapped at his heels, closing down the space between the hulking Belgian and his support players. Valon Behrami, in particular, was brilliant at suffocating the space between the Everton midfield and Lukaku. At times there was barely a fag paper between the back four and the holding midfield two in yellow. Everyone was singing from the same Spanish song sheet as Sanchez Flores whose family have a strong musical background.

Deeney got a huge roar when he tracked back to charge down Brendan Galloway in front of the away fans and was at it again when shepherding the ball to Heurelho Gomes in his own penalty area. On an occasion Barkley skipped past Etienne Capoue, Behrami was there to cover his teammate with a bone-crunching tackle. Even Jose Manuel Jurado, who could be considered something of a luxury, was mindful of his defensive duties, pick-pocketing Barkley at a timely moment. It was that sort of one-for-all and all-for-one afternoon.

The first half was not just built on perspiration, however. The visitors kept the ball well and intelligently after winning it back and there were even cries of Olé, Olé, Olé from the 2,800 Hornets’ fans at one point. The pace of Ikechi Anya was used to get in behind rookie full-back Brendan Galloway but even the Scotland international struggled to keep up with the excellent Allan Nyom who marauded the length of the right wing at one point.

The tactics worked a treat and destabilised the home side. Stones argued with Lukaku, Jagielka spooned two balls up in the air and Behrami got right under the skin of James McCarthy. “What a load of rubbish,” barked one Evertonian as he stormed past the press box at half time.

Job done. First-half mission accomplished. Scott Duxbury and Gino Pozzo took their seats well before the start of the second half, a sign of how comfortable they were with how events were unfolding.

There was no sign of complacency at the start of the second 45 minutes: Nyom, Berhami and Jose Holebas had to be at their most alert to snuff out a series of early raids.

Sanchez Flores is a fundamentally cautious coach and it was therefore ironic that the Everton equaliser came two minutes after he made an attacking change, bringing on Ighalo for the tiring Jurado. The change in personnel may have disrupted things but there was no legislating for the way Behrami was caught over playing near the edge of the box. He did the same at the Benteler-Arena on his Watford debut and threw his hand up in apology. You would have hoped he had learned his lesson. He will know from his time at West Ham that you pay a heavy price for mistakes at this exalted level. It was a shame he was at fault as he was otherwise outstanding.

From then on everything that happened was unexpected. You expected Everton, surfing the wave provided by Barkley’s stunning equaliser, to go on and win the game. Instead Ighalo put Watford back in front to send the away fans delirious. From there you backed Watford to hold on and close the game out. Instead, Everton unexpectedly equalised after, for once, getting in behind the Hornets defence.

The equaliser was rough, really rough on Watford but it at least gives them something tangible, something to build on ahead of the home game with West Bromwich Albion. After watching a re-run of this, Tony Pulis might be forced to reassess what he said on BBC Radio 5 Live earlier in the week.

“The owner seems to change manager if they lose a couple of games so it will be volatile there,” he said. “My only worry is if Watford keep messing around with it and keep changing the manager.”

There is not much chance of that on this evidence.

Find out who we picked as our man-of-the-match in our ratings below

A close run thing between Cathcart, Nyom and Behrami but who was our MoM? http://t.co/5ALISgaemn #EVEWAT #watfordfc pic.twitter.com/r3nyRsYfGv — WD Sport (@WDSport_) August 9, 2015

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