Starting quickly has been a running theme for Everton in home games lately, but capitalising on their pressure hasn’t always been as straightforward.
They were enduring similar struggles today too, failing to make their early dominance count, although a stunning Mark Flekken save to deny Iliman Ndiaye did at least see them come close.
The first-half was largely one-way traffic toward the Brentford goal, but testing Flekken was proving to be problematic, particularly for Dwight McNeil, who twice fired wide of the target from the edge of the area.
Yet for all their attacking endeavour, it was Brentford who should’ve taken the lead when Mikkel Damsgaard freed Yoane Wissa, but one-on-one with Pickford, he was denied by the England stopper.
The game turned on its head five minutes before the break though, when, in lunging to get on the end of Ethan Pinnock’s knock-down, Christian Nørgaard caught Jordan Pickford on the shin, and after a VAR check, was shown a red card.
Even a man light, the game was far from over for Brentford, who knew that the longer the game went on, the more chance they had of potentially snatching something.
That certainly rang true as the Goodison Park faithful were getting typically twitchy the longer the game went on, watching on anxiously as their side failed to create any meaningful chances.
Sean Dyche sensed his side were struggling in the final third and threw Beto on 20 minutes from time to partner Dominic Calvert-Lewin up front.
Having lost all five of their away league games this season before today, Brentford would certainly have been feeling twitchy in the closing stages, particularly as Everton rained crosses into their box.
Four minutes of added time brought groans around Goodison Park, but in truth, these two sides could’ve played all night and probably not scored, such were the struggles the both faced in the final third.