sport news Everton 1-4 Brighton: Pressure piles on Frank Lampard as Toffees suffer ... trends now
By the end, the scene was wearily and depressingly familiar: an emptying stadium, the soundtrack of mutiny and the stench of failure.
Everton had finished 2022 by pilfering a point at Manchester City but 2023 has started with a ritual embarrassment. This was the kind of night to leave a manager fretting about his long-term future and leave supporters sweating about their club’s top-flight status.
First, full credit must go to Brighton, a progressive club with a long-term vision and an outstanding plan. They scored four times, might have had a couple more and carried a swagger that left Evertonians wishing their own team could play with such alacrity and ingenuity.
Frank Lampard's job is under serious pressure after his side's humiliating loss at Goodison Park
Kaoru Mitoma scored the only goal in what was an even first-half between both sides
Brighton though scored three goals in six second-half minutes as they ran to a convincing win
It was dejection for Everton who were powerless to stop a ruthless Brighton side in a crushing loss
Roberto De Zerbi will go towards the business end of the campaign from a position of strength and why should they not be dreaming of qualifying for Europe? They have got all the tools to go the distance and are playing as well as anyone around them in the table.
But what of Everton, this once proud institution? They have played Russian roulette with relegation to often in the last decade and, one of these days, they will reach the point of no return. This performance was so bad, so depressing it left you fearing what is around the corner.
Frank Lampard looked haunted as the game meandered to a finish. He will know how impatient and jumpy owner Farhad Moshiri gets in moments such as these and the next few days, undoubtedly, will be uncomfortable. This, after all, was a night with no redeeming features.
A result as unexpected as the one at the Etihad couldn’t have failed to inject confidence and, sure enough, Everton’s start was bright and enthusiastic. They were on the front foot quickly and, inside three minutes, Brighton keeper Robert Sanchez had been called into action to thwart Alex Iwobi.
It was a good save, too, the Spaniard plunging to his left to turn Iwobi’s shot around the post. Lampard had wanted the atmosphere to be like a bear pit, one of those nights when Goodison fizzes, and this
