Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - Brave, brave defending performance there from the Blues after going ahead. It was difficult for sure, without too much inspiration or creativity, but the Blues persisted and got their goal, and then secured yet another clean sheet too.

NOTE: 0.46 from the Blades xG is from McGoldrick’s shot from an offside position.

Premier League

WhoScored

Final whistle! Everton win 1-0! Ref adds almost thirty more seconds and allows a MacBurnie shot to go just wide before blowing for the Blues’ fourth win in a row, and the Toffees are up to second!

90+4’ - Gomes fouled on the edge of the box, no penalty and ref gives no call. VAR not interested Gomes’ protestations.
By the way, Bernard, Godfrey and Pickford have all been booked for time-wasting.

90+2’ - Long throw, Everton clear it for now.
Another corner. Skims off a Sheffield head, out for a goalkick. Lucky Everton again with Mina beaten.

90’ - Iwobi does very well with Coleman to hold the ball in the far corner and then win a corner. The Blues will take it short and try to kill it there. Five minutes to be added on.

87’ - Another corner from nothing for the Blades, header just missed and then a chance blasted over by Enda Stevens. Whew.

85’ - Godfrey on a counter and just inches away from finding DCL completely unmarked in the box. Ref blew for a foul anyway.

83’ - Pickford forced to put a floater from John Egan out for a corner over his own bar. Corner into the box, and Pickford picks it up.

80’ - GOAL!! Sigurdsson! Beautifully-worked move! Bernard to Doucoure, who finds Sig in the box, he controls well and fires low into the far corner.
[Click here to watch]

73’ - Last change will be Andre Gomes coming on for Davies, who has had a good game today in the middle.
Bernard almost found Sig with a cutback but Sheffield can intercept and clear.

70’ - Everton just not doing enough to create clear-cut chances right now. Always a touch too far, a pass poorly placed or just a bad bounce.
Ben Godfrey tearing down the left is hauled down, yellow card for Baldock. Gylfi’s inswinger is taken well by Ramsdale.

66’ - Mina cuts out a cross for a corner. John Egan gets to it before Iwobi, fizzes over.

65’ - Sig spins past Norwood and wins a foul from a central area. He sends his freekick into the box, too far for Mina.
Second change is Michael Keane coming off, and club captain Seamus Coleman is on for him. Interesting, does Holgate go in the middle now?

63’ - Sigurdsson has gone out wide left now, and Bernard is in the central #10 role.
Holgate has a chance to shoot and balloons it wildly over. Can’t fault him for taking a shot.

60’ - Holgate cross blocked on the right, wins a corner. Holgate flicks it on, but doesn’t fall nicely for DCL who was close.

55’ - Bernard is Everton’s first change, coming on for Anthony Gordon.
Olly McBurnie throwing himself forward trying to win a penalty. Laughable. Ref was not interested and neither was VAR.

53’ - DCL gets an unnecessary yellow card, for not allowing the Blades to take a quick freekick.

50’ - Docuoure’s hard work in the box almost creates a chance, but Sheffield clear.

48’ - Blades have won two throws on the Everton right, and are taking very long through Jack Robinson. Gordon hasn’t fully cleared both times, but no chances really given up either.

Halftime Thoughts - Everton have slowly taken over control of this game, but are finding hard to create chances of real meaning. The hosts are definitely a threat on the break, but the Blues have been mostly well organized in the back. Definitely need to put more pressure on the Sheffield United goal with shots.

Premier League

WhoScored

45’ - Chance for Sheffield late. Burke got away from Doucoure at the goalline, turns and fires from an impossibly narrow angle that Pickford looked to get a hand on, but the ref blows for halftime. 0-0 at the break.

40’ - Gordon finds Sig about 25 yards out, his inswinger towards the far post is going wide. Good shot.
Davies has looked good on the ball, bold with it both making runs and looking for his forwards.

38’ - Iwobi with a mazy run, beating four men at close quarters, finds Gordon who tries to do the same and it’s cleared. Shoudl have pulled the trigger well before that.

36’ - Better Everton spell this, controlling the ball and making the Blades work for it.

31’ - Fumble! Freekick from the middle third is fumbled by Ramsdale, pinballs around in the box before the ref blows for a foul by Everton. Another chance.

29’ - SHOT! Keane’s delightful deep diagonal controlled by DCL on his chest, over his defender, and smashes the volley just wide of the far post. Great chance.

27’ - Everton look happy letting Sheffield United have the ball, for the last ten minutes or so. The bottom side in the league, with two points in fourteen games.

23’ - Shot on goal, from Iwobi. Everton passing the ball around well, finds Iwobi in the middle of the park, controls the pass well and has some space to shoot from outside the box, but is straight at the goalie.

20’ - Everton’s right remains mostly untested; Mason Holgate is taking a much more forward position than he has in previous games. Looking for Dominic Calvert-Lewin with long diagonals, but with three centrehalves on him, it’s not working.

16’ - Oh my. McGoldrick running in behind the backline (from an offside position) gets the ball, tries to go around Jordan Pickford and beats him, but it takes a goalline clearance from Godfrey to save the Blues as the ref certainly didn’t call it, though VAR should have.

11’ - Blues win a corner on the left after a cross from Alex Iwobi. Gylfi Sigurdsson inswinger incoming, straight at Aaron Ramsdale who takes well under pressure.

10’ - Awful footballing weather, and the game has matched that too. Misplaced passes have been the story of the game so far from both sides.

3’ - Blades win an early corner off Ben Godfrey, cleared at the second attempt.

1’ - We’re underway at Bramall Lane.

The lineups are out, and Richarlison is out. Anthony Gordon gets the start. Seamus Coleman has dropped to the bench again to return to Ancelotti’s 4-CB back four while Jordan Pickford is back between the sticks too.

4 defenders and 2 goalies on the bench, hopefully Everton don’t need goals late on because who from Cenk Tosun, Andre Gomes or Bernard is giving you those?

Closer to kickoff and Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that Richarlison suffered a concussion during the Manchester United game, and following the league protocols of six full days out, he is not playing today and will miss the Manchester City game on Monday too.

Preview

Everton travel to Sheffield United looking to extend their three-game winning streak in the league while simultaneously overcoming the disappointment of being dumped out of the Carabao Cup quarterfinals midweek.

This will be Everton’s fifth game in fifteen days, and with two more coming up on Monday against Manchester City and Friday against West Ham United, Carlo Ancelotti will surely have to rotate the squad, just which games will he choose to rest some key players in and will some of the younger faces in the squad get some starts.

In his pre-match comments he seemed to indicate that the City game is where he’ll make changes, is that a sign of admission that he’s not anticipating getting any points there? Certainly if James Rodriguez and Richarlison are out for today and Monday then it’s quite unlikely we’re picking up six points there.

The weather is going to be miserable, can the quality of football on offer be any better?

Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchday 15

Date and start time: Saturday, December 26th at 12:00 p.m. PT / 3:00 p.m ET / 8:00 p.m. BST

Stadium: Bramall Lane, Sheffield, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 32,702 {behind closed doors}

Weather: 47°F/8°C, wind & rain, 76% chance of precipitation, 26 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: Peacock, Universo - United States; BT Sport 2 - United Kingdom; DAZN - Canada, beIN Sports HD 12, SuperSport Variety 2 ROA, SuperSport 2 Maximo, RMC Sport 2, Canal+ Sport 4 Afrique

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Live stream: Fubo, NBC Sports App, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, Universo Now, BT Sport App, ESPN Play Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now, RUSH, Hotstar VIP

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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Pickford, Holgate, Mina, Keane, Godfrey, Doucouré, Davies, Iwobi, Sigurdsson(c), Gordon, Calvert-Lewin

Subs: André Gomes, Olsen, Nkounkou, Coleman, Lössl, Bernard, Branthwaite, Tosun, Kenny

Sheffield United

Ramsdale, Baldock, Basham, Egan(c), Robinson, Stevens, McGoldrick, Ampadu, Osborn, Brewster, Burke

Subs: Jagielka, Bogle, Mousset, Lowe, Fleck, Norwood, Verrips, McBurnie, Sharp

Last Meeting

The Blues last traveled to Sheffield early last season when Marco Silva was still in charge. After falling behind early and chasing the game with a flat performance, the Toffees conceded a second goal to put the issue beyond doubt while looking to unlikely to score even if another ninety minutes were added on.

Everton did beat the Blades at Goodison behind closed doors after the resumption of the season this summer, Richarlison grabbing the winner. This season Chris Wilder’s team are not having the meteoric run they did last campaign, struggling to score while keeping goals out their own net, so any result is really possible tonight.