Time Machine

The time has come at last
Let's go explore the past
We'll build a time machine
To see the bygone dreams
We dreamed but never thought
The time would ever come
When we would see the past

sang Del Bromham's Stray in 1970. Everton won the league in 1970 and, just for an hour and a half, it was like I had a time machine at Goodison Park on Sunday as Everton crushed Manchester United 4-0. The game has been well covered in the media so for once I doubt I'll be accused of exaggeration by saying "crushed". As Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said afterwards, Everton were better at everything on the day. This wasn't a "steal it on the break" victory or an outplayed but got the better of the scoring win. It was comprehensive. 

A smartly dressed old geezer (even older than me) said after the game "that was like Kendall's teams in the 1980s" which was, of course, the last time Everton won the league. Indeed it was. But it also reminded me of two matches from the 60s I attended: Everton 4 Manchester United 0 in the 1963 F.A. Charity Shield (my first match at Goodison Park) and Everton 3 Manchester United 1 in 1967 when Alan Ball, Howard Kendall and Colin Harvey swarmed all over the then European Cup holders featuring the Best-Law-Charlton triumvirate of admittedly even greater fame in a more one-sided game than the scoreline suggests. Bobby Charlton did not even celebrate his excellent shot for United's late consolation. In my mind's eye I can still see the Golden Vision, Alex Young, dancing between two United defenders and then slamming the ball past Alex Stepney. Oh, sure, time and age can play tricks but, until today, I don't think I'd realised the Match of The Day highlights are available on youtube*. Watching Young's goal, pretty much as I remembered it, brought a very large smile to my face. But what the highlights show was a huge similarity in aggressive running between the Everton team of 1967 and Easter Sunday. Harvey, in particular was a dynamo, hugely under-rated outside of Merseyside and lacking only a better shot to be the complete player.

Such comprehensive wins for Everton over Manchester United are not that common and are to be relished. Kendall's Everton smashed United 5-0 in October 1984, a harbinger for that season's run to the title. The most recent wins that were anything similar were in February 2010 when an Everton side featuring the then promising youngster Jack "the lad" Rodwell beat a United team including ex-Evertonian Wayne Rooney 3-1 and Everton's 2-0 win in April 2014 which prompted United to sack David Moyes 2 days later. The latter win was more comprehensive than the scoreline suggested. That Everton team featured Romelu Lukaku, who's return to Goodison this week was no more pleasurable than Moyes's 5 years ago, with Gwladys Street singing "fatty, fatty, what's the score?"

The remarkable thing about this week's game was that, well though Everton played, they played perhaps only marginally better than in the 1-0 win against Arsenal a fortnight earlier, which I was also fortunate to attend. In both games they harried the opposition mercilessly, played the ball forward briskly and intelligently and competed all over the pitch. Each time the diminutive Bernard was a delight, intercepting countless times against Arsenal by good positioning and anticipation and producing some neat play on the ball in both matches. United, mind, also made him look fast when a recent newspaper report had branded him "slow". Mind, they also said Dominic Calvert-Lewin lacked pace, which I think is risible. DCL is easily quick enough for his position, though his strength is a never say die attitude backed up with strong running throughout the game; he always puts in a shift. He has also got much better at winning possession in aerial duels. He has learned the centre forward's knack of jumping early. I'm not sure I appreciated this while I was playing, but centre forwards, not needing usually to get much distance on their headers, can jump early and head the ball on their way down, appearing almost to "hang in the air". In contrast centre halves (my position from my late 20s) need to get distance on the ball and do this by heading it upwards, which means they can't jump early, they need to move into the ball rather than letting it hit them and just redirect it. Watching DCL leap across in front of Chris Smalling  on several occasions on Sunday to cushion the ball on his head or chest to another blue shirt was fascinating and just what I'd seen him do against the Arsenal defenders. The lad has real promise - the question is whether he can start scoring goals with the frequency his position requires. Unless the opportunity emerges in the summer to sign a genuinely top class centre forward (unlikely I'd strongly suspect) I'd certainly be happy to give him another year to develop, especially while Richarlison and Sigurdsson are scoring well. 

Talking of Sigurdsson, I wrote when Everton signed him that losing Barkley and £25M to get Sigurdsson seemed a questionable deal. His stats showed most of his goals came from set pieces. I'm happy to have been proven wrong about Gylfi: his shooting skill is immense, picking out the corners of the goal whether he's hitting it hard or passing it into the net. His goal on Sunday was top drawer. You can blame the United defenders for standing off him but not the goalkeeper, even though the shot was hit from some 30 yards. Sigurdsson also works hard and makes life difficult for the opposition's holding players, impairing their ability to recycle the ball quickly. I'd still prefer to have Barkley, but as well as,not instead of, Sigurdsson.

Everton's last four home games have produced a draw with Liverpool and wins over Chelsea, Arsenal and Man United, with seven goals scored an none conceded. Maybe the top 6 aren't that far ahead of the next group in terms of class. The only puzzle is where the lacklustre performance at Fulham, beaten 2-0 by a team demob happy from relegation. Also in that sequence was a very competent away win at West Ham. 

Hopefully Silva has realised Everton teams, from the 60s and probably earlier, have to play with passion, aggression and tempo. It gets the fans behind them for a start: Goodison was raucous on Sunday.

Either way, I've been fortunate to see those last two home matches. Maybe I don't need a time machine to see Everton have success again.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be2wP2JCdQg. Young's super goal is at 11m 30s followed by what passed for a replay in those days - a section edited into the VT and commentated from the studio.