Armstrong’s giant leap

Still a fortnight shy of his 18th birthday, Harrison Armstrong is learning his trade as a Premier League footballer in difficult circumstances in this struggling Everton side but in typical Scouse style, the youngster from West Derby is no shrinking violet when it comes to imposing himself against the world’s best players.

Like his famous namesake Neil, the first man on the moon, this was in many ways another small step for the midfielder but a giant leap in terms of his fledgling career.

Handed his first senior start in the Carabao Cup defeat at home to Southampton in September, Armstrong’s two previous Premier League outings were late cameos in a 4-0 loss at Tottenham Hotspur and a win by the same scoreline against Wolverhampton Wanderers, although his full-blooded approach ensured he still managed to get booked in the latter.

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However, here at the Vitality Stadium, he played the entire second half and on a day when clearcut chances were virtually absent for the Blues, he even got himself on the end of a moment that was about as close as they got to having an opportunity when home keeper Mark Travers flapped at a Ashley Young cross and he lurked at the back post with a header.

The generation gap at Everton is arguably bigger than at most clubs with older patrons recalling several occasions when their team was the best in the land; those in the middle clinging on to the memories of the 1995 FA Cup final, the club’s last major honour; and the youngsters having nothing to cheer.

While newly-crowned darts world champions Luke Littler, Armstrong’s junior by a mere two days, has already experienced the taste of great successes, youthful Blues like himself won’t even remember the David Moyes era at Goodison Park but despite being raised on a starvation diet of relegation scraps, this latest home-grown hero offers some hope for the future.

Striking the balance

In football you attack and defend as a team and right now it doesn’t seem to matter who is playing up front for Everton, the chances are just not being created. Unfortunately for the Blues, they put all their goalscoring eggs into one basket when Wolverhampton Wanderers came to Goodison Park on a night when four counted; two were, somewhat harshly, ruled out, and Jack Harrison still missed a couple of sitters late on, but other than that, it’s been slim pickings to say the least.

Their failure to score at Bournemouth was the eighth time in their last 10 matches that they have drawn a blank. For the second consecutive fixture, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who endured a 23-game drought last season and whose current dry spell now extends to 15 matches, was dropped to the bench but since being elevated to take his place, the same issues are afflicting his replacement Armando Broja, who toiled for little over half an hour before injury was added to insult.

Those behind the strikers – other than Iliman Ndiaye who has netted half of Everton’s away goals so far this season – aren’t contributing either though with goals having dried up for Abdoulaye Doucoure, who Dyche has previously called the team’s ‘Johnny on the spot.’

Dwight McNeil’s injury absence is continuing to bite and when players are getting themselves into encouraging positions, they are also appearing to lack conviction, which is a perfect storm for the team’s current malaise.

Pickford deserves better

We all know that many of those who watch their football somewhere else other than Goodison Park have got their fair share of weird and not-so-wonderful opinions on Jordan Pickford but as the player who has arguably done more than any of his team-mates in recent years to keep Everton in the Premier League, England’s number one deserves better than this.

The sucker punch arrived a bit earlier than the Blues’ previous horror show at the Vitality Stadium when captain Seamus Coleman inexplicably deflected the ball beyond his own goalkeeper in the last minute, but substitute David Brooks’ back post volley still must have hurt like a dagger to the heart after Pickford’s heroics.

Manager Sean Dyche said in his post-match press conference that a custodian of Pickford’s calibre would expect to make the impressive saves that he pulled off to keep Bournemouth at bay for as long as he did, but while it wasn’t quite a Roy Keane-esque “Just doing your job” assessment, nobody at Everton should be taking what the 30-year-old does for granted, or has been doing for eight seasons now.

The Blues are stuck in a rut right now and need to improve dramatically in the second half of the campaign if their dream move from Goodison Park to their new stadium doesn’t turn into a nightmare.

But after keeping the Championship wolf from the door for so long, Pickford’s team-mates need to start offering him more support as even he can’t do it all on his own.