April 09, (THEWILL) – Everton beat Manchester United 1-0 at home on Saturday, easing their relegation fears and relieving the tension on Frank Lampard’s shoulders, if only temporarily.
Ralf Rangnick’s Red Devils were awful and deservedly lost to Lampard’s side, who are now four points clear of the relegation zone but have played one more game than Burnley.
In the early exchanges, a free-kick dropped to Marcus Rashford, and he forced Jordan Pickford into a ninth-minute save. Cristiano Ronaldo fired just over soon after the subsequent corner, albeit the offside flag was later waved.
Rashford then slipped between Michael Keane and Ben Godfrey to meet Bruno Fernandes’ cross, but Pickford went down low to push his header away.
Everton, on the other hand, seized the lead against the odds after 27 minutes. The Toffees poured forward in numbers when Nemanja Matic was robbed cheaply of possession, with Anthony Gordon narrowly overhitting a pass into the channels for Richarlison to chase, but the Brazilian recovered the ball.
He then picked out Alex Iwobi on the edge of the Man United box, sending the ball back for Gordon to fire in off Harry Maguire’s shoulder.
While that deflection caught David de Gea off guard, he recovered to deny Richarlison’s shot ten minutes later, which looped off Victor Lindelof.
As Man Utd cautiously sought a second-half comeback, Fernandes’ probing pass forward narrowly eluded Rashford’s outstretched boot, while Lindelof stopped Gordon’s close-range drive at the other end.
Everton’s pleas for a penalty were turned down by referee Jon Moss, who was also dismissive of VAR’s objections when Gordon went down under a challenge from Alex Telles.
Ronaldo, who was mostly anonymous in the second half, had a late strike deflected onto Pickford’s arm in stoppage time, and United lost a depressing match that puts them in seventh place as their struggle to reach top four slips by with each week.
Everton face another huge clash against Leicester in their next Premier League outing on April 20 at home. United are next in action against Norwich at Old Trafford next week.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
