As he savoured the first Premier League hat-trick of his career, along with kick-starting Claudio Ranieri’s Watford reign in spectacular fashion, Josh King was asked to explain the contrast with his barren time at Everton last season. “I never got given a chance,” he stated, correctly.
Everton gave him plenty on his return. Goodison Park was an incredulous, furious place as a consequence.
One week after enduring a 5-0 defeat by Liverpool, Ranieri’s transformed team turned the tables on Merseyside to inflict a five-goal humbling of their own on Everton and Rafael Benítez. King was central to the rout, albeit with sizeable assistance from his former teammates. The Norway international failed to score in 11 appearances for Carlo Ancelotti’s side and his previous Premier League goal had come on the day Bournemouth were relegated here in July 2020. Prolific at Goodison, just not in an Everton shirt.
King, who missed last week’s Liverpool defeat, said: “It is a bit personal. I didn’t really get things going here and I felt like I had a point to prove to myself. I think I did that.”
Ranieri was full of praise for the clinical forward and the character shown by the entire Watford team after falling behind to Tom Davies’ opener after three minutes.
“Every time I spoke to my players I told them: ‘Never, never give up’,” said the new Watford manager.
“Atlético Madrid are one of the best teams at not conceding and lost 3-2 to Liverpool. If they can concede three to one of the best teams in the world then it can happen that Watford concede five, but after that you have to fight for every second ball and every duel.” Something Everton failed to do.
Benítez has built goodwill during his early days as Everton manager but Goodison turned in his 11th game in charge. His team gave the crowd good reason, serving up a truly shambolic defensive performance that turned a 2-1 lead in the 78th minute into a 5-2 defeat by the 91st.
Watford walked in some of their late goals as Everton’s defence disintegrated. There were boos on the final whistle from those fans who remained, boos when young Anthony Gordon was substituted and a few boos when Alex Iwobi appeared from the substitutes’ bench. A lengthy injury list provides no mitigation for a display a woeful as this.
The Everton manager said: “Anthony had a good game but he doesn’t have 90 minutes in him yet. He has to improve his stamina. I thought we needed Richarlison [Gordon’s replacement] because he can score goals and he came on the pitch and scored.
“If we finished winning everyone would say it was a great substitution but we made mistake after mistake and that was the key part of the game.”
Ranieri’s substitutes, Emmanuel Dennis and João Pedro, would have far greater impacts.
Rodrigo hits last-gasp penalty to rescue point for Leeds against Wolves
Even on the day he chose a system associated more with Mike Bassett, Marcelo Bielsa contrived to halt Leeds’s slide in quintessential fashion. They were spared a second successive defeat by the 30-year-old Rodrigo, but his injury-time equaliser was the product of a faith in youth that has been a constant in Bielsa’s long career.
While leaving a fit-again Kalvin Phillips as an unused substitute, Bielsa turned to two teenagers. Crysencio Summerville and Joe Gelhardt are almost half a century Bielsa’s junior. He was manager of Argentina when they were born but Gelhardt brought a happy ending to what Bielsa had termed one of his saddest weeks as Leeds manager.
Perhaps it was a sign of the fearlessness of the young as Gelhardt tore into Wolves; he twice came close to scoring before he was nudged over by Nelson Semedo.
Wolves objected to the award of the penalty – “very soft,” said Bruno Lage – but Gelhardt felt just too fast to stop legally.
Callum Wilson’s overhead stunner earns point for Newcastle at Crystal Palace
A new face in the dugout and still no win. But at least the game began on a positive note for Newcastle supporters as Callum Wilson’s spectacular overhead kick rescued a point against Crystal Palace.
Watched on by the director, Amanda Staveley, in the absence of Yasir al-Rumayyan, Newcastle’s non-executive chairman from Saudi Arabia, the new interim manager, Graeme Jones, showed why he has been trusted with ensuring a smooth transition after Bruce’s departure this week.
A solid if unspectacular performance against vibrant opponents who were desperate to turn a run of draws into victories represented a decent start for the 51-year-old from Gateshead, even if he was grateful for Christian Benteke’s profligacy and the decision to disallow the Belgian’s late goal that would have sealed the points for Palace.
“We came here to win,” said Jones. “That was the intention so the next best thing is a point. It’s a base for us to build from but we all know that there is plenty of work to do still.”
