Everton Open Hill Dickinson Stadium With A Win!

Everton created history today, with the first Premier League game being played on the new waterfront home, Hill Dickinson Stadium, ending in a 2-0 win against Brighton!

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Lineups:

Everton:

Pickford

Garner

Tarkowski

Keane

O’Brien

Gueye

Iroegbunam

Grealish

Dewsbury-Hall

Ndiaye

Barry

Brighton:

Verbruggen

De Cuyper

Dunk

van Hecke

Wieffer

Ayari

Baleba

Mitoma

O’Riley

Minteh

Welbeck

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As the sirens flooded across the city, swiftly followed by Z Cars, a feeling of similarity spread across the 52,769 Evertonians inside of Bramley Moore Dock. A monumental occasion, and with the players greeted with planned fireworks and blue smoke from the roof of the ground, the big task of getting three points on the day was upon the lads on the pitch.

It is fair to say Brighton started the game on top! In the 18th minute of action, a long ball from Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen was placed into the path of Mitoma, who had Tarkowski marking him. The English defender was not able to bring the ball down, missing the opportunity to deny Brighton any chance of a position to score from. The expected awkward bounce then occurred, leaving the Japanese forward with the prospect to shoot. As the ball was still bouncing, Mitoma’s football intelligence meant the decision to flick it over Tarkowski’s head was the best option. Utterly fooling the 32-year-old, Mitoma patiently waited for the ball to come back down whilst simultaneously preparing for the volley. Soon enough, the dangerous attacker, who was joint-highest goal scorer for the Albion last season, smashed the ball into the crossbar of the South Stand.

Only a minute later, and Fabian Hurzeler’s side had another huge opportunity to strike first on Everton’s historic day. After Yankuba Minteh received a ball along the right-hand side by Wieffer, Idrissa Gana Gueye hurried over in an attempt to restrict access to the Toffees’ penalty area. Unfortunately for the Senegalese defensive midfielder, Minteh was able to get past Gueye, leaving the 35-year-old on the floor. Bursting into the box was Danny Welbeck, and all Minteh had to do was square it across goal. With Jordan Pickford with no chance, the ball was played across the goal; however, due to the lack of ability Welbeck had to slow down in time to just tap it in, the striker ran too far ahead, meaning when it came to tapping it home from 6 yards out, the ball would scoop over the top of the crossbar, an incredible miss.

At this point, Everton began to gain some momentum, as in the 23rd minute, Everton’s counterattackfell into the hands of new signing Jack Grealish. With Grealish always being known as the type of player who can easily take others on, there was no doubt the fans within the ground were happy to see the 29-year-old attempt some duels with the Brighton fullbacks. Grealish, up against Wieffer, simply dropped his shoulder, beat the man, and chipped it across goal to Iliman Ndiaye, who side-footed it into the back of the North Stand net. Ndiaye will definitely be proud of this one, as the Senegalese attacker scored the final goal at Goodison Park, in the Toffees' 2-0 win against Southampton in the second-to-last game of the previous Premier League campaign, and the first goal for the Toffees at Hill Dickinson Stadium!

Brighton had some chances after the Blues went ahead and perhaps should have equalised. In the 38th minute, Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke picked up the ball just outside the penalty area and decided to have a crack. The Dutch international’s shot took a deflection off the side of Jack Grealish, curving the ball into what looked like the back of the net. Luckily for the Toffees, the ball struck the post, meaning Brighton had hit both the crossbar and post in the first half! Furthermore, in the first minute of additional time in the first half, James Tarkowski had a moment of madness when deciding to pass the ball back to English goalkeeper Jordan Pickford during the Albion’s press. Without looking, Tarkowski passed the ball into the path of Matt O’Riley, instantly putting his head in his hands. However, whilst attempting to dribble around the goalkeeper, Riley created an angle too tight to convert from, allowing Pickford to collect the ball, preventing any chance of a Brighton equaliser before the halftime break.

The Blues came out for the second half hungry as ever to get another goal to calm the nerves. When Jack Grealish laid it off for James Garner outside of the box in the 52nd minute, the English midfielder had a shot on goal. Even though the space was tight, Garner sliced the ball with a mix of both power and placement, going through the legs of Minteh and holding too much force for the goalkeeper to prevent the ball from heading into the bottom left-hand corner, giving Everton a two-goal advantage.

It was business as usual as nerves built both for the fans watching and evidently the Everton players on the pitch. The tension between Moyes’ side was increased when Brighton were awarded a penalty in the 75th minute as Minteh’s shot from the right wing struck the arm of new signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, with the PL Match Centre on X stating the midfielder “had his arm raised and made his body unjustifiably bigger”, which was fair. However, as Danny Welbeck, following his huge miss before, stepped up, taking his time to take the penalty, Pickford was prepared, guessing the right way and saving the penalty, meaning the Toffees opened the Hill Dickinson Stadium for real, with a huge 2-0 win, a complete bounce back from the poor performance last week against Leeds United!

David Moyes after the game stated that “It was everything we wished for. We wanted a positive result today. We had a great atmosphere, a terrific new stadium." When asked about Jack Grealish’s impressive performance out there today, the Scottish manager expressed that “Jack was game for it; he didn’t try to shirk anything. He didn’t want off after 60 minutes – no chance. He wants to show he’s the real deal,” also adding that “he probably has something to prove. I had something to prove over the years at different times. I think sometimes it gives you that challenge you have to be ready to take. Hopefully Jack is."

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Thank you for reading my post-match article!