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EVERTON celebrated 32 years of the club’s charity, Everton in the Community, with a victory against Crystal Palace.
The club ditched their usual shirt sponsor for one game in order to highlight the work done by the charity which aims to “use the power of sport to motivate, educate and inspire people in our local communities to improve their life chances.”
It took a while for things to get going in this early kick-off and even Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti admitted that Everton weren’t firing on all cylinders for much of this game.
The win “was really important for us after a performance that was not so good for 60 minutes,” said the Italian.
“We arrived well in the end but in the first 60 minutes we had problems. Crystal Palace played well, but the key point was the counter-attack with Richarlison.
“We played better [in the recent draw] against Newcastle.”
Richarlison’s compatriot Bernard opened the scoring with an expertly taken volley following good work from Theo Walcott down the right.
Palace came back into the game when Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford allowed a shot from Christian Benteke to sneak under him, but the England stopper was well-positioned to make an excellent save from the Belgian shortly after.
Richarlison’s outstanding goal was worthy of winning any game. The Brazilian latched on to Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s flick-on, carrying the ball half the length of the pitch, evading Gary Cahill, and finishing well past Vicente Guaita.
Calvert-Lewin rounded things off with a tap-in after Richarlison’s header rebounded off the bar.
Everton are now one point off fifth, and five off fourth, and have a realistic chance of catching Tottenham and Chelsea in those positions above them.
“I prefer to win than to have a good performance and lose, this is normal,” added Ancelotti, who is aiming to qualify for the Europa League.
“I have to say that the work everyone in the club has done in this period was really good.
“Now our league position is good we can begin to fight for Europa League in the next games.”
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