51 mins: Salisu rises for another high-ball, is once again emphatically outjumped by Calvert-Lewin, and he again demands a free-kick for it. He doesn’t get one, but the referee stops play because he was pretending to have a head injury and it is restarted with a dropped ball and Southampton in possession, so it all worked out in the end.
48 mins: Sigurdsson’s shot deflects off the wall and over the bar.
47 mins: Calvert-Lewin collects a loose ball 15 yards inside Southampton’s half, spins and runs towards the penalty area, sprints into a posse of defenders and throws himself to the floor. I’ve got no idea if there was any genuine contact, but Everton have a free kick in a tasty spot.
46 mins: Peeeeeeeep!
The players are back out! And I have had a halftimely scoop of orange and almond choc chip ice cream, which was rather good.
45+2 mins: Half of the time has been played. Now then, having now viewed the Adams/Godfrey incident twice I think it shouldn’t have been a penalty, but I also think it was similar in many ways to the incident involving David Luiz against Wolves last month, in which a defender accidentally brought down a forward sniffing a potentially excellent goalscoring chance, while not attempting to play the ball. On that occasion David Luiz conceded a penalty and was sent off.
45+1 mins: There will be approximately two minutes of stoppage time before the break.
43 mins: Ings chips a pass up towards Adams, who ends up on the ground in a heap also involving Godfrey. There are some penalty appeals, which neither the referee nor his video assistant is convinced by.
Che Adam and Ben Godfrey grappling for the ball. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Reuters
39 mins: Richarlisson released Sigurdsson down the right, and he picks out Calvert-Lewin with a pull-back, but the striker’s first-time effort hits a defender, and Sigurdsson was probably offside anyway.
36 mins: Another Everton free-kick from the right, another good delivery - this time from Sigurdsson - and this time there are four blue shirts, all onside, queuing up to convert. Richarlison would be better off leaving it for Calvert-Lewin but isn’t to know that, and flings out a leg to deflect it wide!
33 mins: Southampton are having a good spell. Redmond’s low centre from the left finds Ings and Djenepo unsure which of them should take control, and in the end the Malian defers, and Ings hits a shot on the turn into a defender.
“Twice offside from free-kicks, one costing a goal - am I alone in thinking that’s poor stuff from Everton?” wonders Gary Naylor. “It’s a dead ball and you’re looking right down the line. It’s not hard to wait that heartbeat longer before making the run.” The first I’ll forgive but the second was peculiar, in that Everton created a free-kick routine, involving mock confusion between Digne and Sigurdsson, especially to befuddle the defence and leave them uncertain when the cross was coming in, only for their own player, who knew exactly when the cross was coming in, to be befuddled.
Stuart Armstrong breaks past Lucas Digne. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
30 mins: And another chance for Southampton! Good work from Djenepo on the right, and he passes infield to Adams, whose first-time spinning centre hits Salisu and deflects, a bit unluckily, into Pickford’s palms.
28 mins: Southampton win a free-kick, and Ward-Prowse’s delivery is excellent but Calvert-Lewin diving-heads it behind! “Was ‘A special correspondent’ code for the Guardian printing wire copy rather than sending their own reporters?” asks Graeme Thorn. Almost certainly not - old newspapers are full of such thing, generally written by bashful, publicity-shy (or ambitious, frustrated) but very much real journalists.
A training-ground free-kick routine pays off handsomely, with Holgate heading Digne’s cross into the path of Keane, who turns it in, but Holgate was half a torso offside.
Forster is beaten again, but VAR comes to the Saints’ rescue. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/PA
24 mins: Boggle-eyed protestations of innocence from Redmond after Holgate goes over his foot and wins a free kick, about 25 yards from goal.
22 mins: Ings anticipates Digne’s back-pass and comes that close to getting to it before Pickford! But then, in the end, he doesn’t.
20 mins: Andre Gomes tries a defence-splitting pass towards Calvert-Lewin, a lovely ball which the striker could have reached ahead of Forster if he hadn’t decided he was maybe slightly offside so taken a step in the wrong direction. Luckily he was, indeed, slightly offside.
17 mins: A decent cross from Ings on the right, but sadly Ings wasn’t in the penalty area to score from it. Keane concedes a corner, though, which is headed out to Redmond, whose volley goes over the bar.
15 mins: Save! Sigurdsson sends the ball in, and Richarlisson’s diving header was on its way towards the bottom corner before Forster got a big glove in the way, though the linesman’s flag kind of made it immaterial.
14 mins: I’m not sure Southampton’s self-esteem can survive an early goal. They’ve certainly looked poor in the few minutes since they conceded. Everton win a free-kick on the right for a Salisu high boot.
11 mins: Mohammed Salisu goes down after losing out to Calvert-Lewin in the header/shoulder double, but is soon back on his feet and in the fray.
A lovely opening goal for the home side! Calvert-Lewin wins a head, and then wins the header (well, shoulder) from his header. The ball drops to Sigurdsson, who plays Richarlison through and the Brazilian goes past Forster and scores from an acute angle!
Richarlison rounds Forster to give Everton an early lead. Photograph: Peter Byrne/Reuters
6 mins: Bertrand wins a corner for Southampton, but Calvert-Lewin heads clear.
4 mins: A bright opening from both sides. One wildly overhit Armstrong through-ball at one end, one offside flag against Calvert-Lewin at the other.
1 min: Peeeeeeeep! “Wow! Bolton Wanderers vs. Bangor City,” enthuses Sarah Rothwell. “Now there’s a fixture you don’t see every day.” It is a fixture that (so far as I can tell) has only once been seen in all of human history, in fact.
Z Cars rings out, and the teams make their way onto the Goodison Park pitch. Mason Holgate is holding an iPad across his chest like a soldier with a shield.
TheFlyingPasty(@ToffeeDan)
@Simon_Burnton I think I can't let it pass that back in 1971 Everton hosted Southampton a week after a momentous Derby win .. and won 8-0 (Royle 4, Ball 3, Johnson). It was 5-0 at HT.
This is true. Everton had beaten Liverpool 1-0 at home a week earlier. Here’s (a bit of) our match report:
A report on Everton’s 8-0 win over Southampton in November 1971 Photograph: Guardian
Fraser Forster plays for just the second time this season. He currently has a 100% win record, his one previous game being January’s 1-0 win over Liverpool.
It’s 5C in Liverpool at the moment. Here’s Mason Holgate arriving at Goodison Park, as if it’s mid-July and he’s on the Croisette in Cannes:
Mason Holgate of Everton arrives prior to the Premier League match against Southampton at Goodison Park. Photograph: Emma Simpson/Everton FC/Getty Images
Here are tonight’s teams. The headlines: Ings IN! Calvert-Lewin IN! Allan IN! Forster IN!
Everton, whose last league win was against Liverpool a week ago, host Southampton, whose last league win was against Liverpool two months ago. The home side are not exactly in great form - their record over their last eight games is the 12th-best in the division - but Southampton’s is horrible, and in the same period they have one point, a goal difference of -19, and are rock bottom. “We are definitely sometimes a little bit too nice,” says Ralph Hasenhuttl (not if you ask referees: Southampton are joint third in the league on red cards with three, and 10th on bookings with 38). “It is hard to change this because this is our mentality, our character,” he added. “And the only problem is that you always get punished when you are nice or correct and sticking to the rules. Sometimes it is important to be a little bit nasty.” Let’s hope Everton have reinforced their shin pads.
In one respect at least these teams are perfectly matched: Everton might sit seventh but they have the Premier League’s 16th-best home record, with four wins in 13 games; Southampton are 14th but they have the league’s 16th-best away record. Something’s gotta give!
There’s plenty to look forward to here, I think. Welcome! Let’s share this footballing feast, shall we?
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