Fulham 0 – 0 Everton
Everton ground out their third goalless draw in their last five matches in all competitions as they survived sustained second-half pressure from Fulham to leave Craven Cottage with a valuable point but still dropped back into the relegation zone after Luton’s shock drubbing of Brighton.
Both teams hit the woodwork and the Toffees had Jordan Pickford to thank for pulling off a world-class save to deny Tosin Adarabioyo with a quarter of an hour to go at one end. Meanwhile, at the other, Timothy Castagne cleared off his goal-line, Atonee Robinson got away with handball in his six-yard box, and substitute Beto somehow missed the best chance of the game in stoppage time at the death.
There was more bad news on the injury front, however, for a small squad stretched dangerously thin when Arnaut Danjuma had to be helped off in the 90th minute with an apparent ankle problem.
Sean Dyche had already been forced to patch together a starting XI given the absences of Andre Gomes (calf), Amadou Onana (knee), Seamus Coleman (thigh) and Idrissa Gueye (AfCoN) which saw Ashley Young return from his own injury lay-off to play wide on the right, Ben Godfrey to play right-back instead of Nathan Patterson and Dwight McNeil to play a more central role alongside James Garner in midfield.
But they held their own in the first half and had their chances to go ahead, not least in only the second minute when Dominic Calvert-Lewin laid the ball back for Jack Harrison but the winger swept a left-foot shot narrowly past the far post from near the edge of the box.
The striker was denied a crack at goal of his own when Issa Diop charged down the ball aimed at his feet from Vitalii Mykolenko and Danjuma later registered an official shot on target from 25 yards out with a daisy-cutter that Bernd Leno comfortably gathered.
In between, as the contest opened up into a back-and-forth tussle, Robinson forced the first save of note from Pickford when he latched onto James Tarkowski’s clearing header and drilled a shot goal-wards but midway through the first period, Everton came within a third of the diameter of the ball from taking the lead.
Young took responsibility for a free-kick just outside the box after he himself had been fouled by Robinson, Leno pushing his low delivery back into danger in front of his goal. Tarkowski’s shot on the rebound bobbled off a defender’s head and bounced off the bar, struck Robinson’s hand as it spun back onto the goal-line where Castagne hooked it clear.
Video Assistant Referee David Coote reportedly argued that the American international’s arm was by his side when it struck his hand but replays and still images from the other end of the ground clearly showed it was well away from his hip. It left Dyche perplexed after the game, the manager saying to the media:
“We can’t get a penalty, you know that. We haven’t had a penalty [this season]. I think we’re a bit lost with the handball thing and VAR generally, even though I’m generally a fan of it.“
The visitors carved out another great chance in the 32nd minute when Danjuma was picked out down the left channel and he turned Joao Pahlinha in the box but when he needed to hit the target to at least work the keeper, he instead ballooned his shot into the stand behind the goal.
The always-dangerous Willian saw a shot blocked by Jarrad Branthwaite and Andreas Pereira flashed an effort narrowly over the bar while another Calvert-Lewin layoff to Harrison ended with the latter firing straight down the keeper’s throat before both sides spurned opportunities to go into the break a goal up.
First Castagne hammered the ball into Everton’s six-yard box and the ball deflected off Tarkowski into the path of Jimenez but, thankfully, the Mexico international slashed the rebound wide from close range.
Then, Harrison flighted a chipped ball to Danjuma near the back post in the Cottagers’ box but the Dutchman’s volley was blocked behind by Castagne.
The tit-for-tat nature of the game continued into the first 15 minutes or so of the second half despite Marco Silva being forced into withdrawing Jimenez due to injury and introducing Rodrigo Muniz in his place.
Godfrey, who had an impressive game in a full-back role in which he hasn’t always looked comfortable, made a couple of crucial interventions in front of his own goal before going close to scoring himself following a free-kick, the defender’s goal-bound shot taking a crucial deflection off a defender and bouncing wide.
From the resulting corner, Calvert-Lewin’s header caught the top of the crossbar and a minute later, the striker stooped to connect with Young’s cross from the right but this time his header dropped into the roof of the net.
What followed was a sustained spell of Fulham pressure and a barrage of corners during which Everton retreated into their own half and tried to protect what they had.
Pereira narrowly missed trying to force the ball home at the back post off Robinson’s cross, Godfrey made a last-ditch intervention to slide the ball behind after Bobby De Cordova-Reid had raced out of a crunching challenge with Branthwaite and Pahlinha blazed just over when he connected with a high bouncing ball in the Blues’ area.
In the 65th minute, Fulham counter-attacked, Pereira fed Muniz whose shot was deflected wide and when the hosts played the corner short and the ball was whipped in, Castagne helped it towards goal where it came back off the face of the bar.
Silva’s side looked to have finally made the breakthrough in the 76th minute when Willian delivered a pin-point cross that was met firmly by Tosin with a header steered towards the top corner but Pickford flew across his line and pushed it over brilliantly with one hand.
Fulham still weren’t done, though. Robinson centred dangerously once more in the 83rd minute and De Cordova-Reid grazed the post with a scuffed shot when well placed and then as the game moved into stoppage time, Muniz had a great chance to win it but planted a header straight at Pickford.
Still Everton, having been battered to a degree for the best part of half an hour, could have – and probably should have – won it at the death. Beto had replaced Calvert-Lewin with around 10 minutes left and he forced a corner when his shot was blocked behind.
Tarkowski connected with the ensuing corner in habitual fashion at the back post, headed it perfectly back across goal where Beto simply had to get over it and nod into the empty side of the goal. Instead he despatched his effort over the bar and a minute later, with the ball pinging around in Fulham’s six-yard box, neither the Portuguese nor Godfrey could stab the loose ball home from close range.
An away point is never something to be sniffed at and, given how strained Dyche’s squad is in terms of numbers, this was a valuable draw and a result that many would have taken before the game. Luton’s 4-0 hammering of Brighton was alarming, though — not only did it lift Rob Edwards’s side out of the bottom three and dump Everton into it, it enhanced the notion that the Hatters might well have enough to stay up.
The Toffees need bodies back, Doucouré and Gueye in particular, and with Danjuma now presumably out for the next two matches at least along with Adamou Onana, it’s almost inconceivable that the club won’t go all out to try and bring someone in on loan who can provide either creativity, a goal threat or both.
We had similar thoughts this time last year, though, and exited the winter transfer window empty handed which means there’s an awful lot riding on the appeal against the 10-point deduction that starts tomorrow.