Clear. Safe. The words Evertonians never thought they would here. What a comeback this was. From nowhere really. The first 45 minutes was as bad as Everton have been; the second 45 as good as it gets.
From 2-0 down to 3-2 up. From sleepwalking over the canyon to relegation, to one mighty leap to the other side. Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s winner was greeted by a foolish pitch invasion, which may bring the attention of the authorities, but the sense of release was overwhelming.
After the second goal the last 15 minutes of the game was played out in a haze of blue smoke, like some illegal rave. The air was acrid, the mood one of total abandon. It had an unhinged feel to it, the final exchanges. Somehow Everton emerged with their sanity and their place in the Premier League intact.
Everton manager Frank Lampard celebrates their stunning fightback on Thursday night that assured survival
Everton fans on the pitch after victory over Crystal Palace guaranteed Premier League status for another year
Everton forward Richarlison celebrates on the pitch after Everton secured their status with the help of his goal
Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford celebrates with fans after the thrilling fightback on Thursday night
The stands emptied and the pitch filled with the people. Blue smoke clogged the air, and they sang songs of grand delusion. About playing beautiful football, about being the greatest team the world has ever seen. History, grandeur, shining brightly, everything that has been missing from this season.
And yet, we understand. This is a grand club, with a grand story behind it. And the way they survived as a Premier League entity was truly quite incredible.
From 2-0 down to 3-2 up. From sleepwalking over the canyon to relegation, to one mighty leap to safety on the other side. They are clear now. They are secure for another year. These are words Evertonians never thought they would hear.
Certainly not at half-time. What a comeback this was. From nowhere really. The first 45 minutes was as bad as Everton have been this season, and there’s some fair competition in that area. The second? It was as good as it gets.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s winner, five minutes from time, was greeted by a foolish pitch invasion, which may bring the attention of the authorities, but the sense of release was simply overwhelming.
After the second goal the last 15 minutes of the game was played out in a haze of acrid blue and a mood of crazy abandon.
It had been like that before the game, the smoke alarms removed inside the Goodison Road entrances and corridors after being constantly triggered by flares.
There were silences after Crystal Palace scored, and news that Burnley initially led against Aston Villa hardly improved matters, but by the end this old ground felt unhinged, almost without boundaries.
Fans sat on the crossbar as police cleared the pitch. We had to keep reminding ourselves: this is a club finishing 16th. This is a club that has spent money to achieve European football and has ended up avoiding the Championship by a handful of points. There will be some mockery around that from the red half of this city. Maybe they could offer to share their open bus parade.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin sparked pandemonium by sealing a remarkable comeback late on in the match
Everton striker scored with a diving header from Demarai Gray’s free-kick in the 85th minute with a clinical finish
Yet somehow, amidst the madness, Everton emerged with their sanity and their place in the Premier League intact. Frank Lampard had his name sung loud into the night. The players that, at times, have been hated were celebrated like heroes. It is amazing what a good 45 minutes can do.
For at half-time, Everton looked done. In the match that would define their season, they had turned in their poorest performance.
Yet from there, Everton located fight mode and Crystal Palace were unable to resist them. There were league places at stake for Palace, and maybe a top half finish, but Everton’s situation was drastic and they ended up wanting it more.
They scored three goals in 30 minutes, enough to lift them away from Burnley and Leeds who continue their fight to the bitter end. Arsenal away is just another fixture for Everton now.
Crystal Palace scored twice in the first half through Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew to stun the home crowd
Mateta was left unmarked to head home the opening goal in the 21st minute and the defending was non existant
Ayew doubled the visitors’ advantage from close range in the 36th minute at Goodison Park but could have been sent off
This wasn’t. This felt like a life or death struggle from the start and certainly at the mid-point Everton were being measured up by the Co-op. From somewhere, they found the resolve. The goals came not in tension-releasing glut, but spread through an incredible second-half, the pressure intensifying minute by minute.
The goals were scrappy, hard fought, much like this victory. For the first, after 56 minutes, Mason Holgate headed down for Michal Keane who showed excellent poise and balance to prod the ball into the net. For the second, a Dele Alli cross should have been cleared before Richarlison hooked the ball past Jack Butland in goal. The third was a Demarai Gray free-kick, powered into the net by the head of Calvert-Lewin. Goodison erupted. The move to the new stadium is vital, of course, but will it ever produce noise quite like this? Unlikely.
Yet a game that began with such sound and fury, lapsed into eerie silence and occasional bursts of white hot fury as Everton’s season was played out in a first-half microcosm. Heavens, it was a poor start from the home side. Toothless in attack, woeful in defence. They looked like a relegation team and calling it a Championship performance would actually be an insult. There are teams in the league below that are better than Everton showed prior to half-time.
Nine minutes after the break defender Michael Keane prodded home to give the hosts a lifeline and buoy the crowd
One little cameo summed it up. Everton won a corner which Anthony Gordon bunged tamely into the first yellow-shirted Palace defender. On the touchline Lampard applauded encouragingly. He put one in mind of the coach of an under-11 team, staying upbeat as little Johnny booted another one behind the goal. All that frustration channelled as positive energy. Not that it did any good.
The idea that Crystal Palace, or any team really, is on the beach at this stage in the season is largely nonsense. Some, like Chelsea, just look exhausted by events; others, like Southampton, will be relegation candidates next season without improvement. They simply aren’t very good. Crystal Palace, however, did not start the game last night as if Everton were the only team whose result mattered. This was a bad-tempered clash from early, and maybe that helped, but Palace’s mindset did them, and the league, proud.
This was a battle from the third minute when Gordon – why always him – and Wilfried Zaha clashed near the touchline. Zaha looked to make contact and the home crowd howled for his dismissal. Anthony Taylor. the referee, was having none of it, delivering stern lectures all round. As the game wore on, increasingly he seemed to get the blame for faults and calamities of Everton’s making. In the seventh minute Jordan Ayew had a header go wide from distance. It was a warning that Palace weren’t here to let events wash over them.
Richarlison levelled for Everton with 15 minutes remaining against Crystal Palace and he has been integral to them
The Brazilian forward found the bottom corner with a miscued shot with 15 minutes left as the momentum swung
Richarlison skimmed the bar with a free-kick from 25 yards after 16 minutes – more anger at Taylor because it was thought Jack Butland got a touch to tip it over, which he didn’t – and then, quite simply, the roof fell in.
Forget the Premier League, defend like this in any league and calamity awaits. Eberechi Eze took a left sided corner which he curled towards the far post. It was a lovely, dangerous strike, but it was criminal that it should find striker Jean-Philippe Mateta in so much space. It is hard to blame any individual really because the marking was so poor that nobody was near enough to take responsibility. The ball flew into the net and Goodison fell silent. Stunned.
Then, in the space of four minutes, three incidents that reduced the crowd to a broiling mass of apoplexy. In the 32nd minute, Will Hughes was booked for a foul on Gordon. Again, why does everyone want to take lumps out of him? A minute later, an even worse one on the young man from Ayew. This was right in front of the Everton dug-out and brought players rushing from all areas of the pitch, including goalkeeper Jordon Pickford, who has never seen a fire without gravitating towards it with a bucket of petrol. To more fury, Taylor only booked Ayew, who promptly thanked him by scoring.
This was the goal that encapsulated the worst of Everton’s season. Mateta took the ball too easily off Seamus Coleman and his cross was punched out inadequately by Pickford, falling to Zaha. He replied with a shot that struck Ayew and was scrambled home in the softest circumstances. Abdoulaye Doucoure should have cleared off his line, Vitali Mykolenko got in Pickford’s way. It was a shambles. So were Everton at that point. What followed was quite remarkable. Maybe one day they’ll all look back at this season and laugh; but perhaps not just yet.
Everton defender Seamus Coleman clashes with Crystal Palace’s Jordan Ayew in the first-half of a heated game
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