A tale of two number 9s
Legendary Everton centre-forward Dixie Dean of course became football’s first number nine when he sported what would become an iconic jersey for his club against Manchester City in the 1933 FA Cup final but it’s Pep Guardiola not Sean Dyche who has the closest 21st century equivalent to Goodison Park’s most-prolific marksman.
The Norwegian – who now has 51 goals in 50 Premier League starts following this brace – is the kind of deadly finisher who only needs one chance to punish you but unfortunately for Everton, after keeping him quiet and hardly affording him a touch for the first three-quarters of this contest, they gave him two and he took them both. These are the perks when you’re leading the line for the world’s best club side.
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It was in sharp contrast to the scraps that Dominic Calvert-Lewin had to feed off for 77 minutes until he made way. Everton’s current number nine is also a proven scorer at this level having become only the club’s fourth player to net 50 times in the Premier League but he never looked close to ending his current barren streak, which has now extended to 18 matches, here.
This was a very different kind of strong centre-forward’s display from the Yorkshireman, in which he hardly had a sniff at goal. Ironically as the game opened up in the latter stages, Calvert-Lewin’s replacement Beto went one-on-one twice, squandering his first chance and then finishing his second, only to see a late flag going up for offside on both occasions.
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