It really was a match of two halves on Saturday, when Crystal Palace faced Everton at Goodison Park.
The first saw Sean Dyche‘s side characteristically sloppy and on the back foot, whilst the visitors seemed to be executing their game plan to perfection.
They went into the break with a slender lead, and would have felt mightily confident of retaining it given the barren form of the Toffees.
However, they could not account for the magic of Dwight McNeil and a rekindled second-half solidity, whose quickfire brace proved to be enough to secure all three points.
He was not alone in his efforts to turn the game around, and Dyche must be credited for key half-time substitution which made a huge difference: taking Jesper Lindstrom off for Jack Harrison.
Michael Ball left unhappy with Jesper Lindstrom
Chatting to the Liverpool ECHO earlier this week, Michael Ball once again sought to offer his verdict on the Toffees’ latest exploits.
And, whilst he was unsurprisingly delighted to see his former side pick up their first Premier League win of the season, what he saw one of their players do left him feeling really frustrated.
He pointed out: ‘It feels like we’re not all singing from the same hymn sheet. We saw the disappointment from Jesper Lindstrom not having the best of games but while I get that and it happens, he needs help.
‘He was getting frustrated because he was isolated. When he received the ball, he had no midfielder asking for it, no striker round the corner to pass to while Ashley Young was 20-30 yards too deep to support.
‘Yes he reacted when he lost the ball, waving his arms up, but that’s a message to his team-mates to go and help him. It’s a learning curve for him though that the Everton fans won’t forgive you if you act like that.
‘We can all have poor games when things don’t go for you, but show a reaction. Wave your hands, scream and shout, AFTER you’ve won the ball back.’
Jesper Lindstrom has endured a mixed start to life at Everton
When he joined, the Denmark international was expected to provide a much-needed creative spark to Dyche’s Everton side, with pace, trickery and finesse in abundance.
Graeme Bailey even argued that Jesper Lindstrom was one of the signings of the summer.
However, with scattered minutes thus far, and a failure to impress when briefly called upon thus far, it’s fair to say that things aren’t going smoothly for the 24-year-old on loan from Napoli.
It’s not been all bad though, and there have been flashes of the intelligent playmaker that Everton thought they had signed.
A clever run against Leicester City freed up the space for Iliman Ndiaye to fire in the opener, whilst against Southampton, despite a profligate performance, he was involved in chance after chance despite the cup exit.
Should he sharpen up that little bit more, Everton might well have secured themselves a bargain to be proud of.
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