Everton suffered a 2-0 defeat to Southampton on Sunday afternoon and ended the game with only 10 men after Lucas Digne was sent off for fouling Kyle Walker-Peters. The 27-year-old didn’t put in the best performance at St Mary’s prior to his dismissal either, so it was a weekend to forget for Digne.
What did Digne do?
Against Southampton, Digne played for 72 minutes, had 85 touches, won two aerial duels, completed 76.7% of his 60 passes, failed to created a chance, whipped in eight crosses without finding a teammate, gave away three fouls, made two clearances, he was dispossessed twice, made one unsupported touch, failed to make a tackle or interception and failed to make a successful dribble.
Digne was given a straight red card midway through the second half for raking the achilles of Walker-Peters while the Southampton defender drove with the ball from deep. The decision to send off the French international was controversial, however, and Everton plan to appeal it. Carlo Ancelotti called the red card a “joke”.
What games could Digne miss?
If our appeal is unsuccessful, Digne will have a three-match ban. He could miss Sunday’s meeting with Newcastle United (November 1), the following Saturday’s meeting with Manchester United (November 7) and our trip to face Fulham a fortnight later (November 21).
Niels Nkounkou is our only natural left-back that could replace Digne, but Ancelotti might look elsewhere as he’s only given the 19-year-old minutes in the EFL Cup and named him on the bench twice in the Premier League. Fabian Delph is fit and operated in the makeshift role while at Manchester City, so he might be an option. Time will tell.
Be positive
Everton are still top of the Premier League table with 13 points from a possible 18, having won four and drawn one of their six games this season, so things could be worse. We’re winless in our last two games but did face the defending champions in a Merseyside derby, so taking a point from that meeting was a success. Here’s hoping we can bounce back from the Southampton defeat with a result against Newcastle.
In other news, Everton offered Cenk Tosun to Besikas, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce without success