Everton still winless after gloomy draw with Leicester

When the storm clouds gathered at King Power Stadium, and thunder boomed around the stands, it seemed to perfectly capture where Everton are at right now.

With uncertainty over the club’s future, and unhappiness over manager Sean Dyche, the crazy weather conditions in Leicester were just the latest challenge for a club stuck in a state of paralysis.

Dyche ended a run of four defeats in a row as Everton secured their first league point of the season to at least lift the gloom a little, after lightning struck twice with his team throwing away two-goal leads in successive matches.

This time the off-field problems were purely focused on the torrential rain, which was so severe that the two teams stayed in the dressing rooms for 21 minutes at half-time.

Yet this result was in Dyche’s view a “mini-positive step”, with his injury-ravaged squad putting their first point on the board and now hoping for a brighter future.

Everton were impressive defensively, restricting Leicester to only two shots on target, while £15 million summer signing Iliman Ndiaye already appears a shrewd piece of business.

Dyche could even afford to joke that he was surprised not to be hit by lightning, such is his bad luck at present.

“It is just noise, you know? The players are human beings so naturally it does affect you but the point is that it is just noise,” the Everton manager said.

“I’ve told them that we have been through this before, had challenges before, had a lot of knocks and the players have been grinding through.

“There’s been loads of question marks and it’s hard on the players. We have to support ourselves and each other. We’ve got positive thoughts overall with such a limited squad due to injury and illness.

“We pieced a team together on Friday and it’s all lastminute.com at the moment. I’ve not lost sight of the fact we haven’t won but this is a step forward for us.”

While Everton will take any encouragement right now, Leicester are also waiting for their first Premier League win under Steve Cooper.

Last season’s Championship title winners recovered from a poor first half to finish the stronger team. Leicester are still adapting to the Premier League and Cooper is yet to witness a complete 90-minute performance from his players.

There is also a weird disconnect in the stands, with Cooper’s decision to take off their best player, Stephy Mavididi, near the end and the final whistle greeted with a smattering of jeers.

It could have been worse, however, after an abysmal first half where misplaced passes and mistakes were the norm.

“Today we got what we deserved but there are other games where we feel like we should have picked up more points than what we did,” said Cooper. “In general we feel like there is a lot of good going on in our approach to games and in preparation and training but we have to just try and put it all together.

“This is the first game where we got what we deserved, every game up to now we were disappointed that we didn’t get more. We have to keep going.”

Everton have made their worst start to a league season for 66 years but were impressive in the first half, taking the lead through Ndiaye.

Exchanging passes with Ashley Young, the Senegal international then advanced into the penalty area before placing his shot in the bottom corner.

Leicester did have one chance late in the half when Mavididi almost caught out Jordan Pickford at the near post, but it was an alarming first-half performance which Cooper cannot have seen coming.

Yet as the weather improved, so did Leicester. Caleb Okoli, the centre-back, somehow headed Mavididi’s cross over from eight yards as the pressure began to build and then the equaliser arrived 17 minutes from time.

James Tarkowski and Michael Keane got in a tangle under pressure from Wilfred Ndidi and failed to clear Harry Winks’s corner, with Mavididi lashing the ball home from close range.

Leicester were the team most likely to win in the final stages but Cooper, like Dyche, is still waiting for lift-off.