Everton manager Marco Silva was desperately hoping bragging rights would be his as he returned to former club Watford for today’s Premier League clash at Vicarage Road.
With tensions between the two clubs going back to our chase of Silva the other year, this was his first return to the stadium and the game was pretty matched and level on a statistics front.
The telling statistics went in their favour though as they opened the scoring with 25 minutes remaining in the clash to take a 1-0 advantage. Lucas Digne did rattle the woodwork with a set piece effort and that gave some hope of a late surge but sadly it wasn’t to be and we suffer yet another defeat – our third on the spin now.
84' Off the bar. AGAIN! ???? @LucasDigne's free-kick clips the top of the crossbar.
⚫ 1-0 ???? #EFCawayday
— Everton (@Everton) February 9, 2019
With pressure rising and obvious criticisms coming Silva’s way, this certainly isn’t going to help things and the club need something to go their way to lift the growing tensions.
News that Kurt Zouma gained himself a second yellow card for a suspension following the game makes a bad day worse.
Speaking to the BBC following the fulltime whistle, Silva said of the 90 minutes.
“It was a tough match and a balanced match. We created more than enough chances to score a goal. Three defeats is a concern to me as a manager. You work always work to win the match. There is more ambition to change the match but the moment is not good.”
FT | Gray's second half strike gives Watford the win. #EFCawayday pic.twitter.com/9eIYPJmP4H
— Everton (@Everton) February 9, 2019