Key events
5 min: Nathan Patterson fails his first test of the evening against Kairo Mitoma. The Japanese winger cuts inside the Everton right-back with ease and tries to pick out Welbeck with a cross. Stretching to reach the ball, the Brighton striker sends it out of play.
3 min: What a start for Everton! Alex Iwobi won the ball and played it up the inside right for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who took it on the turn, spinning away from Lewis Dunk. In acres of space, he advanced, crossed to Doucoure at the far post and the Mali international swept home from seven yards.
GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Everton (Doucoure 1)
Everton lead inside a minute! Everton win the ball and break upfield and a mistake from Lewis Dunk allows Dominic Calvert-Lewin to pick out Abdoulaye Doucoure at the far post. His task couldn’t be simpler and he taps in with 34 seconds on the clock.
Brighton v Everton is go …
1 min: Following a rendition of the national anthem that doesn’t go down to well with the visiting fans from Merseyside who try their hardest to drown it out, Brighton get the ball rolling. Their players wear their customary home kit of blue and white stripes, white shorts and white socks. The players of Everton wear lilac shirts, black shorts and lilac socks. Having played at right-back against Manchester United, it looks like Moises Caicedo will move back into the midfield, with Pascal Gross taking over in defence.
Not long now: The teams make their way out on to the pitch led by referee Simon Hooper and his team of match officials. Lewis Dunk wears the captain’s armband for Brighton, while Jordan Pickford skippers Everton in the absence of the injured Seamus Coleman.
Meanwhile in the Championship: With Burnley and Sheffield United already guaranteed automatic promotion going into today’s last round of fixtures, and Wigan, Blackpool and Reading already down, the battle for the play-off places was the focus for today’s action. Middlesbrough and Luton had already booked two of the four berths and Coventry City and Sunderland will join them.
Coventry stayed in fifth in place on the back of their 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough, while Sunderland leapfrogged Millwall into sixth place courtesy of a 3-0 win over Preston at Deepdale. Despite being 3-1 up at home against Blackburn and looking set fair to snatch the final spot at Sunderland’s expense, Millwall ended up losing 4-3 and drop out of the play-off places. Luton will play Sunderland and Middlesbrough will Coventry City in the semi-finals, with the winners meeting at Wembley.
Elsewhere in the Premier League: Jamie Vardy missed a penalty as Leicester City lost 5-3 at Fulham despite a vaguely rousing comeback effort after going 4-0 down after 51 minutes.
It was a defensive horror show from Leicester, who sit two places above the relegation zone on 30 points but only on goal difference from Leeds and Nottingham Forest directly below them.
Those teams: Everton make two changes to the side that drew at Leicester last time out. Yerry Mina comes in to the centre of their defence for his first appearance under Sean Dyche, while Nathan Patterson starts at right-back in place of the injured Seamus Coleman. Michael Keane drops to the bench.
Pascal Gross returns for Brighton, with Billy Gilmour making way from the side that started against Manchester United last week. Deniz Undav starts up front alongside Danny Welbeck, with Julio Enciso dropping to the bench, where he will sit alongside Brighton’s teenage Irish sensation Evan Ferguson.
Brighton v Everton line-ups
Brighton: Steele, Estupinan, Caicedo, Dunk, Webster, Gross, Mac Allister, Mitoma, Buonanotte, Undav, Welbeck.
Subs: Sanchez, Colwill, March, Enciso, Ayari, Gilmour, Ferguson, Van Hecke, Moran.
Everton: Pickford, Patterson, Mykolenko, Mina, Tarkowski, Gueye, Garner, Doucoure, McNeil, Iwobi, Calvert-Lewin.
Subs: Begovic, Holgate, Keane, Onana, Gray, Maupay, Davies, Coady, Simms.
Everton: According to the latest accounts, Everton’s “ability to continue as a going concern” will be in doubt should they fall through the trapdoor this month. Just what are their prospects of survival before Monday’s visit to European hopefuls Brighton? Andy Hunter investigates …
Today’s match officials
Brighton: The Brazilian forward João Pedro has joined Brighton from Watford for a club-record £30m fee, signing a five-year contract running until June 2028. The Seagulls are also closing in on the signing of consumate professional and Liverpool midfield veteran James Milner. Italian transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has the latest …
Everton: Sean Dyche has admitted livelihoods are at stake in Everton’s final four matches and he intends to restore “core values” to the club irrespective of its Premier League fate. Andy Hunter reports …
Brighton v Everton: Early team news
The loss of Seamus Coleman to injury for the rest of the season is quite the hammer blow for Everton, not least when you consider that whoever is tasked with filling his Nike Tiempo Legend 9’s will have to try to contain the serious left-wing handful that is Kairo Mitoma this evening.
It won’t be Ben Godfrey, who is out with a groin injury, which is almost certainly for the best given some of the roastings he’s been forced to endure while playing out of position as Coleman’s deputy in recent weeks. Yet to get his Everton career going nearly 16 months after joining the club, Nathan Patterson may have to step despite Sean Dyche saying a couple of weeks ago that the Scotland intenrational cannot yet consider himself “a bona fide Premier League player”.
Brighton are without long-term absentees Joel Veltman, Adam Lallana, Tariq Lamptey, Jeremy Sarmiento and Jukub Moder, while Pascal Gross and Evan Ferguson were rated at no better than 50-50 going into today’s game after missing out on their side’s win over Manchester United. Both could feature on the bench but neither is expected to start.
Premier League: Brighton v Everton
Hoo-boy! Have we got a game for you! Still bang in contention for a fourth place finish and the place in next year’s Champions League that comes with it, Brighton & Hove Albion host an Everton team in dire need of points as they continue to circle the Premier League plug-hole after yet another season of dire recruitment, awful management and totally unsurprising on-field struggle.
Brighton sit seventh in the Premier League, eight points behind Manchester United in fourth but have two games in hand over Erik Ten Hag’s side and three over Tottenham and Liverpool in sixth and fifth place respectively. With games against Everton, Arsenal, Newcastle, Southampton, Manchester City and Aston Villa to come, Roberto Di Zerbi’s side can still nab a top four spot and have a major say on the final placings at both ends of the table.
Everton, by contrast, are in deep trouble and have just four games to drag themselves out of the mire. Without a win in seven and having taken just four of the past 21 points available, they sit second from bottom and – working on the assumption that Southampton are already sunk – look to be in the most unseemly of scrambles with Nottingham Forest, Leeds and Leicester to avoid the two remaining relegation places.
After tonight’s game they host Manchester City, before rounding off the campaign with a visit to Wolves followed by a home game against Bournemouth. Survival is not beyond them, but with Forest hosting Southampton later this evening, it could look an increasingly tall order come pub closing time if they can’t take something from tonight’s game. Kick-off at the Amex Stadium is at 5.30pm but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
