Richarlison's Single Goal, Bring Everton To Taste The Home Victory Again

JAKARTA - Everton finally felt another victory at home when they overcame Southampton 1-0 in Week 26 of the Premier League at Goodison Park Stadium, Tuesday morning.

The advantage through the only goal scored by Richarlison at the start of the match was able to be maintained by Everton until the whistle signaled the dissolution.

Despite picking up their first win in the last six matches at Goodison Park, Everton did not move from seventh in the standings on goal difference to Liverpool despite both of them collecting 43 points.

Meanwhile, Southampton (30), who have not tasted victory in the last nine games, remain in 14th place in the standings.

The provision of the Merseyside derby victory a week ago was a big injection of confidence for Everton to pressure Southampton from the start of the match.

Just nine minutes into the game, the Southampton defense failed to anticipate a long pass, which Gylfi Sigurdsson could turn into a through ball for Richarlison to finish with a hard shot into the bottom right corner of the net to open Everton's lead.

Then in the 26th minute, Michael Keane felt he had doubled Everton's lead when he finished Mason Holgate's pass, but the goal was ruled out by referee Martin Atkinson after consulting VAR over an alleged offside.

Three minutes later, Southampton almost equalized unfortunately Moussa Djenepo's cross hit Mohammed Salisu so that the ball was easily secured by goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

On the other hand, Everton threatened again through set pieces sent by Sigurdsson, but Richarlison's header was off target.

Everton entered the second half with the same high aggressiveness, unfortunately Ben Godfrey's good chance of close range was blocked by Jannik Vestergaard who put his body in front of goal.

Two points almost slipped from Everton's hands at the end of normal time when their defense failed to anticipate a corner, fortunately Pickford was the savior by blocking Vestergaard's close-range chance to secure the hosts' win over Southampton.

In the next match, Everton will visit West Bromwich Albion headquarters on Thursday before Southampton travel to Bramall Lane to face Sheffield United two days later.