Everton at Leicester City: Instant Reaction | Gutless, again

Let’s be honest here. We all came into this game with minimal expectations. After all, Everton are in all sorts of turmoil (embarrassing that we have to keep typing that line, year after year after year), while Leicester City are soaring, firmly entrenched in the top four and with a chance to go clear into second place ahead of defending champions Manchester City.

Marco Silva’s choice to go with a three-man backline was no surprise really, considering Morgan Schneiderlin was his only fit defensive midfielder and he could’ve gotten more pace out of a retired tortoise.

And it appeared to be a smart plan for the Blues too, as they clogged the middle eliminating the Foxes talented trio of James Maddison, Wilfred Ndidi and Youri Tielemans, relying on the counter attack and ceding possession in harmless areas.

The Toffees took a surprise lead as well, Djibril Sidibe finding himself in tonnes of room on the right from an Alex Iwobi pass and crossing a peach of a ball into the box for Richarlison to hammer home with a precise header.

Leicester looked off the pace after their five wins on the trot, possibly having underestimated the Blues but even with their near-70% possession, chances were hard to come by for the hosts.

The second half started off with more of the same, but the real difference was made at the hour mark when Brendan Rodgers brought on Kelechi Iheanacho for the ineffective Ayoze Perez. The Nigerian forward offered a lot more width and movement for the Foxes and it was no surprise when his ball across the box found Vardy coming in late at the far post to tuck it home for the equalizer.

Things got worse for the Blues from there on with the home side looking for the winner with more determination than Silva’s side, though Moise Kean almost snatched a shock goal from far out with a snapshot that caught Kasper Schmeichel not looking and hit the outside of the right post.

Who dares wins, and the Foxes dared late on too. Davies and Sigurdsson contrived to lose the ball in the middle and it ended up with Iheanacho streaking away, and his finish was precise into the car corner.

The assistant referee had his flag up for an offside, but VAR overruled that for a goal by a fraction of an inch.. and the Blues lost 2-1. This is what bad teams do, they play badly, they make bad decisions, and have bad things happen to them.