Everton 1 Southampton 1: Richarlison rescues Toffees after in-form Ings bags Saints opener in Goodison stalemate
DANNY INGS showed why he’s one of the Premier League’s most improved players and an outside bet to usurp England’s young guns for a Euro 2021 place.
With injuries and a bit-part role at Liverpool behind him, the terrier-like striker poached Southampton’s opener, albeit Richarlison’s stylish finish soon cancelling it out.
That equaliser aside, Ings outshone Everton’s Brazil frontman with another show of mobile menace as he reached 19 Prem goals, leaving only penalty specialists Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Jamie Vardy ahead of him.
And he was narrowly denied at Goodison Park on a strong of other occasions.
What a difference to the man who went to Liverpool in 2015 with huge hopes, but was crocked in Jurgen Klopp’s first training session and again the following season.
It meant he made only six league starts in five years at Anfield, and ultimately led to his move to Southampton.
Talk about making up for lost time.At Goodison – a ground where one of his three league goals for Liverpool came in a Merseyside derby – he showed once more there are few more predatory strikers around.
MAJESTIC PICKFORD
It was actually a goal which would have had any watching TV booking agents rushing to get his number for the next series of Strictly Come Dancing, such was his footwork.
Stuart Armstrong’s 30th minute shot was woefully mis-hit, but Ings never gave it up. He knows from bitter experience that causes are never lost ones.
With his right foot he killed the ball dead, and jinked back across the plunging Jordan Pickford.
With his left, he swept it into an empty net.Wayne Sleep eat your heart out.In all honesty that lead was no more than Southampton deserved. By rights, Ings should actually have been doubling it – at least.
Keeper Pickford had denied Jack Ward-Prowse with one save for the cameras, and another majestic – if also slice of luck one – against you know who.
That came when Ings flicked in a header that Pickford’s fingers pushed against the bar and was then fortunate in pushing the rebound away with his trailing hand.
The woodwork had again shown it wore a blue scarf when Ward-Prowse tumbled over Andre Gomes’ trailing leg, then picked himself up to smash the penalty against the bar.
What a difference this Southampton side are now to the one whacked for nine on their own patch by Leicester in late October.
What a dominant performance they put in here at Goodison, too.And what an out-of-the-blue shock it was when Everton somehow poached the unlikeliest and undeserved of equalisers just before the break.
To be fair, Lucas Digne’s crossfield exocet to pick out Richarlison, peeling off Jan Bednarek, was laser guided.
And the South American superstar did superbly to first control an awkwardly bouncing ball and then bullet instinctively past Alex McCarthy. But merited? Not a bit of it.
1-2-FREE Simply predict Man City, Spurs vs Arsenal and Leicester scores this coming weekend and win £100
The banner draped in the Gwladys Street seats with the words Carlo Fantastico, should be swapped for one reading Ancelucky.
The Toffees’ Italian manager definitely enjoyed a fair slice of it in seeing his side leave with a draw from this.In the long-term scheme of things, it is actually a result that little for either club’s hold-on-by-the-fingernails dream of a European finish.
Ings, though, may very well be there… perhaps heading for the international stage as a victory as much for tenacity as talent.
Stuart Armstrong burst forward for a miscued shot that went straight to the industrious striker, who sidestepped keeper Jordan Pickford just six yards out to stab home.
But 12 minutes later a sublime long-pass from Everton left-back Lucas Digne split the visitors defence for Richarlison to run into space and dink firmly over Saints No1 Alex McCarthy.
Most read in Football
Dominic Calvert-Lewin wasted a fine through-pass from Toffees’ midfielder Tom Davies in a tight second-half, eventually making contact with his knee rather than boot.
And Southampton survived controversy late on after last man Jan Bednarek fouled Richarlison.
Referee Lee Mason only booked the Saints’ centre-back – a decision backed up by VAR.