Everton secured their first league win of the season with a 3-1 win over Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium this afternoon.
After heading into the break level at 1-1, Everton came out firing and claimed their first win in six games, with James Tarkowski and Dominic Calvert-Lewin finding the net in the second half of an entertaining match in West London.
Brentford came into this match following a 1-0 loss to Newcastle United last weekend, which brought an end to a seven-match unbeaten run in the league, while Everton were beaten 1-0 by The Gunners at home.
Ahead of kickoff, Brentford confirmed a late personnel change, with Keane Lewis-Potter stepping in for Kevin Schade due to an injury the forward sustained during the warm-up.
It did not take long for the 23-year-old midfielder to get stuck in as he got the beating of Ashley Young and was chopped down, which led to Everton’s veteran defender receiving a yellow card in the opening minutes of the match.
When these teams met last season, Dwight McNeil scored a second-minute goal at Goodison Park, and this time, it took six minutes for the deadlock to be broken as Abdoulaye Doucoure’s close-range effort from a James Tarkowski knock-down found the back of the Brentford net.
The early goal had a noticeable impact on Everton’s players, evident in their body language and their ball movement, and they were almost two up moments later when McNeil fired a low shot just wide.
Last week against Arsenal, The Toffee’s central defence was almost non-existent, but it was a completely different situation in this match as Idrissa Gueye and Amadou Onana controlled the play in the middle of the park for large periods in the match.
However, despite their dominance in the first period, Brentford went down the other end, and Mathias Jensen got the equaliser with a shot off the inside of the post, which VAR checked for offside but awarded as a goal soon after.
While Everton were still well in the contest, the equaliser did seem to have a dampening effect on their performance in the closing stages of the first half, though that is perhaps understandable for a team that is low in confidence right now.
Beto and McNeil were the standout performers for The Toffees in the first hour of the match, and it was McNeil who came up with the assist that put Everton ahead just after the hour mark as Tarkowski nodded home his cross from close range into the bottom left corner.
The visitors almost struck back immediately, but after a scramble in the box, James Garner won back possession and picked out Calvert-Lewin, who finished off the move and celebrated by sucking his thumb, having become a new dad recently.
The third goal evidently knocked the wind out of the hosts, and Everton saw out the match with confidence to take them out of the relegation zone, now on four points.
Brentford and Everton will now have to reset fairly quickly before their midweek Carabao Cup fixtures against Arsenal and Aston Villa, respectively.
