It’s not the first time Anthony Gordon has shown exactly why Frank Lampard is so desperate to keep him at Everton.
Gordon’s goal was not enough to give Lampard’s side their first Premier League win of the season. But a winger much-coveted by Chelsea played a key role in securing a hard-earned point on a thrilling and exciting night in which his team-mates had to be cautious to contain a much-improved Leeds side by Jesse Marsch this season
With Luis Sinisterra scoring an eye-catching equalizer and Jack Harrison’s second-half play never allowing Everton to relax, a ferocious but brittle Leeds, full of threat but retaining a decided vulnerability on the counter-attack.
“I thought it was less entertaining than it could have been because Everton played to slow the game down,” said Marsch, who did not completely dismiss suggestions that Dan James could join Tottenham on Thursday night. “But overall I think it was a step forward for us. I like our team.”
Lampard had no regrets. “It was always going to be junk; we had to stand up to Leeds,” he said before stressing that Gordon “is a top-class player, and he’s our player. It’s too late to sell it now.”
Lampard’s quest for victory led to a pre-match switch from a 3-4-3 formation to a 4-3-3 with three full-backs up front in Gordon, Dwight McNeil and Demarai Gray.
The visitors had hoped to include Neal Maupay, but Lampard’s new striker, a £15million arrival from Brighton last Friday, was unavailable after the Premier League failed to process the necessary paperwork to mark his registration in time. Bank Holiday Monday was cited as the reason, but Everton were unimpressed. “Who has the most holidays?” asked Lampard.
Do not care; It took Gordon 17 minutes to remind Elland Road that wingers can score too. The 21-year-old’s second goal in two games was very good, involving a low, well-weighted and assured shot that was placed under Illan Meslier after Gordon had broken into the box to find the right pass Alex Iwobi with a kind of blind run. Lampard built a career.
Anthony Gordon’s fine finish puts Everton ahead. Photograph: Tony McArdle/Everton FC/Getty Images
Gordon’s price can only have increased after a goal he started from the left. Although Sinisterra, the Colombia international and former Feyenoord winger who started his first league game for Leeds, tried to intercept the ball, his intervention only saw McNeil drop to play Iwobi.
Diego Llorente won’t mind watching the replays of what happened next. The defender looked well-placed to restrict Iwobi’s room to manoeuvre, but instead stepped into a hideous tangle and looked mortified as Meslier was beaten.
Having benefited from Llorente’s last-gasp brace, Everton decided the best way to hold on to their lead was to frustrate Leeds and slow down the pace with deep defending and time-wasting on the street, practiced, especially for Jordan Pickford.
Indeed, when Pickford raced out of his box to contest a loose ball with Rodrigo and the pair’s accidental collision resulted in the latter dislocating his shoulder, Leeds’ vibrant, high-pressing early attack he had given way to a kind of growing irritation with his guests. . This ensured that James Tarkowski did not get the benefit of the doubt when he received treatment for a head injury.
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Although Brenden Aaronson almost changed the mood of the second half, Pickford proved no match for the American international’s powerful right-footed strike.
The England keeper’s superb save was the signal for Patrick Bamford, recently recovered from a groin problem, to start to heat up as the decibel level at Elland Road rose and top Nathan Patterson he clashed intriguingly with Harrison.
Aaronson has done well since his £25m move from RB Salzburg, but the £21m Sinisterra looks like another smart buy. He emphasized his potential by meeting Aaronson’s characteristically clever ball and, having switched the ball onto his left foot, firing low past an unsighted Pickford. Hats off to the excellent Joe Gelhardt, for Rodrigo, for a trick run that caught Everton’s defense out of position.
As the temperature rose, Gordon and Rasmus Kristensen engaged in a heated altercation, leading to a minor hand-to-hand combat that was later reflected in some cross technical area exchanges.
Eventually, things slowed down, the protagonists were booked and, shortly after, Gray had a tackle disallowed for offside.
Minutes after watching the still hugely influential Gelhardt curl a shot inches wide, Marsch ruthlessly and bafflingly replaced his substitute with Bamford. But while the convalescing forward looked sharp, he was restricted to the half-chance.