Everton 0-0 Brentford
by James Nalton
at Goodison Park
EVERTON missed a chance to claim their third win of the season against 10-man Brentford on Saturday.
The home side had the man advantage from the 41st minute when Christian Norgaard was sent off for a challenge on Jordan Pickford.
The resulting 0-0 draw meant that, despite being a man down, Brentford managed to keep their first clean sheet of the season.
Everton looked good early on with Dwight McNeil and Iliman Ndiaye driving them forward.
Mark Flekken showed quick reactions to save from Dominic Calvert-Lewin who inventively diverted an Idrissa Gueye volley.
It was a standout save in an important moment, but the biggest effect on the dynamic of the game came when Brentford midfielder Christian Norgaard was sent off.
His challenge with Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford looked like a standard 50-50 at first glance, but replays showed a dangerously high boot, albeit with no malice or intent to hurt Pickford.
Even so, the letter of the law gave referee Christopher Kavanagh little choice but to brandish his red card after checking the pitchside monitor, and Pickford was lucky to escape with just a bruise.
It should have helped Everton but it didn’t. If anything they looked more threatening in attack when it was 11 versus 11.
Sean Dyche’s side had the lowest average possession in the Premier League going into this game, with 39 per cent.
With a man advantage and presented with a situation where they were seeing a lot of the ball they didn’t seem sure what to do with it.
Brentford did well to break the game up and even had a chance of their own when Keane Lewis-Potter was put through by Mathias Jensen, producing a good save from Pickford.
Everton’s chances fell to Vitalii Mykolenko who shot over with his weaker right foot, and substitute Beto whose shot was blocked solidly by Ethan Pinnock.
Brentford were pleased when the official showed just four minutes of added time. Given the way the game had been stop-and-start, Everton understandably expected more, but regardless of the amount of time added, they didn’t look like scoring and have now failed to find the net in three games.
