Quite possibly, the best Everton have performed under Marco Silva.
3-1 could possibly be a flattering scoreline, but Brighton defended well and looked for ways to trouble us after grabbing an equaliser against the run of play through Lewis Dunk.
Richarlison has surpassed his entire goal tally for the previous campaign and he looks like the player we needed. He has the tenacity to match his talent and his relationship with his teammates, management and the fans bodes well for the future. Not enough is being said about that first goal, Sigurdsson integral, Bernard did well and a great clinical finish.
We have caught up with ‘We are Brighton’ to see how they viewed the match:
1) What was your overall assessment of the match?
It was a typical Brighton away performance really. We were set up to defend for a point and anything else would’ve been a bonus. Unfortunately, we couldn’t deal with Richarlison and him and Gylfi Sigurdsson were the difference between the two sides, which is what you expect when your opponents can field £100m odd of attacking talent.
2)Who was your man of the match?
Richarlison, although Sigurdsson pushed him close.
3) Who impressed you for Brighton and why?
Nobody really impressed. Beram Kayal was tidy in midfield and Florin Andone looked a handful when he came off the bench. That’s the first we’ve seen of him since his summer arrival from Deportivo La Coruna and although you can’t really make a judgement in a 15 minute cameo, it was a promising start.
4) Who impressed you for Everton and why?
Aside from Richarlison and Sigurdsson, Michael Keane was impressive in the way he handled Glenn Murray.
5) Did your opinion change on any players in the match?
I did wonder if Marco Silva had been sniffing glue in the summer with the money you paid for Richarlison, but he looked like a £40m player
6) Mat Ryan has proved to be a decent goalkeeper. Do you feel like he will be subject to interest from other clubs in the transfer window? If so – how much is he worth?
He’s been linked with a move to Manchester United should David De Gea leave and the only surprise about that is it has taken this long for a bigger club to come sniffing. For me, he’s probably the second best goalkeeper in the league after De Gea and the only reason I can think of that no top team has come in for him so far is because he is on the short side for a goalkeeper. That hasn’t proven to be a barrier to his success though and on current market rates, we could probably expect to get up to £30m for him which would be an astonishingly good piece of business given we picked him up for just £5m from Valencia.
7) Everton have been vulnerable to set pieces for the majority of the season. Should Chris Hughton do more to try and punish us at that?
Well, we managed to score from a corner! Had we have been more of an attacking threat then maybe we’d have had the chances to score from a set piece, but attacking corners and free kicks aren’t a strong point for us really. We only scored once from a set piece all last season and Saturday was only the third goal we’ve managed from them this season.
8) For your own premier league hopes, what positions do you need to strengthen in (in my opinion, a striker is a must)
Definitely up front. Glenn Murray can’t carry on forever and if his goals do dry up, we could be in real trouble. We also need a new number 10,especially with Pascal Gross injured. Solly March has played up there over the last four games but he’s a winger by trade and looks very much a square peg in a round hole.
9) Where do Everton tank in terms of teams you’ve played this season?
The best side outside of the top six. I think the gap to the them will be too much for Everton to breach this year if Manchester United sort themselves out, but you should be finishing seventh.
10) Who disappointed you for Brighton and why?
I can’t say I’ve taken to Alireza Jahanbakhsh. He doesn’t do anything wrong but then he doesn’t seem to do much at all. So far, it looks like we’ve paid £16m purely to get a load of new Instagram followers from Iran. I can’t see why he is starting over Anthony Knockaert at the minute.
11) Who disappointed you for Everton and why?
Having gone to Russia in the summer, I’m a huge fan of Jordan Pickford. He didn’t disappoint me as such, I was just disappointed we didn’t force him into doing more.
12) Was it a fair result? Good luck for the rest of the season!
No complaints here. Everton were worthy of a two goal win
