After three goals Everton got back to winning ways against Patrick Viera’s Crystal Palace with the strikes coming from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Anthony Gordon and Dwight McNeil.
This fixture last season was the one that all but secured Everton’s safety but this time the circumstances were very different as it was a chance to give supporters renewed hope in the month before the World Cup and that is exactly what happened.
Everton started the half on the front foot with the Goodison Park crowd behind them with the ball being fed outside to Anthony Gordon on several occasions with the young scouser trying to create an opening.
It only took ten minutes for The Blues to improve on what they did against Newcastle as they had a shot on target through Demarai Gray on the edge of the box with Vicente Guiata comfortably catching the ball.
A minute later and Guiata was picking the ball out of his as Calvert-Lewin had broken the deadlock with a lovely bit of skill and a clinical finish.
Alex Iwobi fed the ball into him and he took a heavy touch nutmegging Marc Guehi before bulldozing him to the ground making sure he was able to fire the ball into the bottom left corner.
It was a much-improved Everton after their poor showing in midweek and they carried on showing more attacking intent as Gray had a fierce attempt blocked not long after the goal.
Gordon carried on being a threat cutting in on his left foot and had his shot tipped over the bar by Guiata.
After the 25th minute though the intensity of the game dropped with the referee having to stop it a couple of times due to players clashing heads but Frank Lampard’s side did not concede any major chances and remained in control before the half-time whistle
The second half started with the away side attempting to put some authority on the game as Palace had a couple of attacks thwarted by brilliant defending from Vitaliy Mykolenko and Connor Coady.
Any threat The Eagles showed was minimal and didn’t last long as Gordon doubled Everton’s lead just after the hour mark.
It was a goal that started from Jordan Pickford with a lovely team ball completely opening up the away side with ease.
After a few slick passes up the field the ball ended up on the left at Mykolenko’s feet and his strike was too hot to handle for Guiata with the Spaniard’s save presenting an empty net to Gordon who tapped it in.
Bizarrely the assistant flagged for offside even though he was clearly on so a VAR check later the goal stood.
Shortly after the second goal a Wilfried Zaha elbow on Gordon enraged Everton players and there was a few scuffles between everyone resulting in a handful of yellow cards.
Everton got their third goal for the cherry on top of the afternoon through substitute Dwight McNeil.
He picked the ball up on the left-hand side and drove towards the box with it before finding Iwobi who audaciously flicked it back to him in the penalty area, so he had a tap in.
It was a treat for the Goodison Park faithful after three games of defeats.
The victory moves Everton up to 11th place with their next game away to Fulham.
