Key events
GOAL! Sheffield United 2-1 Everton (Pickford og 45+3)
Cameron Archer has forced an own goal from Jordan Pickford!
45 min Four minutes of added time. Egan is still struggling after that earlier wrestling match with Beto.
44 min: Chance for Danjuma! Beto spins Egan majestically and stabs an excellent ball through the inside-left channel to release Danjuma. His touch is slightly heavy and that allows Foderingham to come out and dive at his feet. Beto has been increasingly excellent.
44 min This is a perfectly poised game. Both teams will fancy their chances of victory; both have sufficient self-awareness to know it could go the other way, and how damaging that could be.
42 min Play resumes, you betcha.
40 min Egan is down after a wrestling match with Beto, an impromptu contest of which there was only going to be one winner. I think he’s okay.
37 min Good game, this.
35 min Beto beats Egan with a devastating change of space, then cuts back inside him near the byline and whacks a cross that goes behind off a defender. Both the new strikers are having strong league debuts.
What a lovely moment for Cameron Archer, his first Premier League goal. Hamer was involved, of course he was, finding just enough space on the right to crack an early cross towards McBurnie near the penalty spot. McBurnie killed the ball immaculately, back to goal, and touched it off to Archer. He opened his body to steer an emphatic first-time finish past Pickford from 17 yards.
GOAL! Sheff Utd 1-1 Everton (Archer 33)
A terrific equaliser from Cameron Archer!
30 min And now it’s Everton turn to have a strong spell. Doucoure’s left-footed daisycutter from 25 yards is blocked by Egan.
29 min Danjuma collects an exceedingly dodgy square pass from Robinson just oustside the Sheffield United area. Ahmedhodzic does well to force him wide and Danjuma shoots past the near post from a tight angle.
28 min Sheffield United are coming back into the game. It’s been a topsy-turvy first half, which is no surprise given the fragile confidence of both teams.
25 min Archer and Beto have both shown signs of what their managers saw in them, not least eyecatching pace. Archer’s movement is excellent, while Beto is awkward to play against and seems to have a great attitude. He’s a long way to the left of the effective-elegant scale, but Everton won’t care about that.
21 min: Good save from Pickford! Baldock plays a one-two-three with Hamer, who curls a crisp first-time shot from 20 yards that is pushed round the near post by the diving Pickford. Gustavo Hamer is a lovely footballer: sparky, skilful and direct.
20 min Larouci cuts outside Gueye and drives a shot from a tight angle that is comfortably held by Pickford.
20 min This is an excellent spell for Everton. Beto galumphs into the area on the left but his cross is well blocked.
18 min: Chance for Everton! Everton win the ball in midfield and suddenly break four on two. Danjuma cuts into the area from the left, ignores the pass to Onana and drives a shot that deflects wide off the stretching Egan. Excellent defending from Egan, but Danjuma could have given Onana a much easier chance.
16 min Everton actually had a penalty shout just before the goal. Beto’s shot hit the elbow of Robinson, who threw himself at the ball and had limbs flying everywhere. Doesn’t matter now.
Young boomed an outswinging corner to the far post, where Onana wrestled with Vinicius Souza and headed the ball down into the six-yard box. Doucoure thighed it towards goal, forcing a brilliant reaction save from Foderingham, but he had plenty of time to put the loose ball into the net from close range.
Doucoure, who scored Everton’s last Premier League goal of 2022-23, has got their first of 2023-24.
GOAL! Sheff Utd 0-1 Everton (Doucoure 14)
Everton take the lead from the corner!
14 min: Just wide from Beto! Everton almost take the lead out of nothing. Doucoure lays the ball off to Beto, on the edge of the D. He curls a first-time shot that nicks off a defender and spins just wide of the far post.
13 min A long throw is headed away towards Norwood on the edge of the D. His volley is blocked by Beto (I think). This is good stuff from Sheffield United.
12 min Hamer plays an early through ball to Archer, who scurries into the area and is about to shoot with his left foot when Tarkowski gets a vital touch on the ball.
11 min Hamer crackles down the left, away from Tarkowski, and angles a cutback that is deflected into the hands of Pickford. Those two runs from Hamer have got the crowd going.
10 min Norwood floats the free-kick beyond the far post, where Egan is weirdly unmarked. He heads too close to Pickford, who saves comfortably to his right. The lack of pace on the ball made it a trickier chance than it first looked.
9 min Hamer makes a good run down the right and is fouled by Branthwaite. Yellow card for Branthwaite, who led with his studs.
7 min Baldock’s corner is headed away.
6 min McBurnie combines with Archer on the edge of the area and tries to twist away from Patterson, who lunges to concede a corner.
5 min Nowt to report. The ball isn’t seeing enough of the grass.
2 min Patterson’s excellent cross is headed away well at the near post by Robinson, then Larouci almost loses the ball in his own area. Everton have made a fast start.
1 min Peep peep! Everton kick off from left to right as we watch.
The players are about to emerge. It’s a nice afternoon in Sheffield, around 20 degrees; a good day to get your first league win of the season.
Sean Dyche talks to TNT Sports
Transfer window verdict: 2/5
Sheffield United
You win some, you lose some. If Paul Heckingbottom is still sore about losing his two stars of last season’s promotion campaign – Sander Berge and Iliman Ndiaye – amid a summer of turmoil at Bramall Lane, at least the manager has signed a young striker of immense promise in the England Under-21 striker, Cameron Archer. He shone on loan at Middlesbrough from Aston Villa last season and the Leicester loanee cum England Under-21 left-back, Luke Thomas, also appears a fine acquisition, but the bulk of Heckingbottom’s new recruits boast even less experience. Last season’s collapsed takeover has much to answer for. Verdict: 2/5
Everton
Considering the financial constraints they are under, Sean Dyche and director of football Kevin Thelwell did well to address longstanding issues up front. The failure to strengthen further or replace several deadline day departures, however, has left a poor, threadbare squad in a weaker position both creatively and defensively than when Dyche called for major changes at the end of last season. Verdict: 2/5
Team news: Archer and Beto start
The two big signings make their Premier League debuts up front. Cameron Archer starts alongside Oli McBurnie for Sheffield United, while Yasser Larouci replaces the injured Ben Osborn at left-back.
Beto replaces Lewis Dobbin in the only change from last weekend’s defeat at home to Wolves. Sean Dyche has named just seven subs, though Dwight McNeil is among them.
Sheffield United (3-5-2) Foderingham; Ahmedhodzic, Egan, Robinson; Baldock, Norwood, Souza, Hamer, Larouci; Archer, McBurnie.
Substitutes: Davies, Basham, Trusty, Bogle, Thomas, Slimane, Osula, Traore.
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; Patterson, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Young; Gueye, Onana; Garner, Doucoure, Danjuma; Beto.
Substitutes: Virginia, Lonergan, Mykolenko, Godfrey, Onyango, McNeil, Chermiti.
Referee Andy Madley.
Preamble
None. Nil. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Diddly squat. Not a dicky bird. Nary a sausage. Sweet bugger all. That’s the reward Sheffield United and Everton have had in their first three Premier League games, but at least one of them will get off the mark at Bramall Lane this afternoon.
There are literally 35 games to go, so widespread assumptions of relegation, though hardly fanciful, are premature. In 1990-91, newly promoted Sheffield United didn’t win a game until 22 December and still finished in mid-table. Four years later, an Everton team that avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth the previous season failed to win until November. They stayed up comfortably and won the FA Cup.
Paul Heckingbottom and Sean Dyche both got what they really, really wanted this week: a centre-forward. Cameron Archer and Beto could make their league debuts today, having played in the League Cup in midweek. Beto scored to help Everton avoid humiliation at Doncaster.
Both managers have the squads they want, or at least the squads they’re getting until January. In other words, this is the real quiz. We’ll soon find out whether Sheffield United or Everton can throw a pair of shoes over a pub.
Kick off 12.30pm BST.
