- Zaha wins PK; Pickford denies Milivojevic
- Calvert-Lewin wins it in 87'
- Tosun adds on the insurance in 89'
Everton received — and responded to — a wake-up call on Sunday, as Marco Silva’s side struck twice in the final minutes of their 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Goodison Park to extend their ongoing winning streak to three games.
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Neither side offered much of anything in the first half, as the best scoring chances were confined to speculative efforts from long-range free kicks and botched headers on set pieces.
Gylfi Sigurdsson entered Sunday’s game in a purple patch of goal-scoring form (four goals in his last four games), but could conjure up very little with his four first-half shots (juts one on target).
James Tomkins had Palace’s best chance of the opening period, as he rose above the crowd to get a head on Andros Townsend’s floated ball toward an unmarked Tomkins at the back post. Unfortunately for Tomkins, his contact wasn’t solid and the ball sailed five feet wide of the post.
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Finally, in the 59th minute, a moment of real consequence, but still not a goal.
Wilfried Zaha went down in the penalty area after contact from Seamus Coleman and won a penalty kick. Luka Milivojevic stepped up with a sterling record from the spot, but the Serb hit his effort straight down the middle and Jordan Pickford was able to stretch his trailing right leg to make the kick-save and keep the score 0-0.
Minutes later, the game appeared to have opened up a bit, thus came Everton’s best chance thus far. Sigurdsson played Theo Walcott in behind for a one-on-one chance against Wayne Hennessey, but the pacy winger fired straight at the Welsh goalkeeper and came away empty-handed.
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There was still plenty of time left for some late drama — and a pair of goals — though. Following a sleepy start to the game, Everton had finally awoken and seized the three points the deserved.
First came Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s header to send Ademola Lookman’s cross into the back of the net in the 87th minute, followed in short order by Cenk Tosun’s cool finish past Hennessey two minutes later.
The result sees Everton (15 points) climb from 11th to 8th in the Premier League table, while Palace (7 points) sink to 15th.