Having impressed in yesterday’s clash, despite letting two points slip in the final ten minutes, Everton can walk away from their home encounter with Brighton and Hove Albion relatively pleased.
After all, it marked yet another admirable result against a top side, making it two wins and a draw from the last three games, all of which were played within a six-day window.
Sean Dyche has engineered a fine turnaround at Goodison Park, but it is one which he has been eluding to all season, with their results at first in the Premier League not quite matching their performances.
However, such a return to form has not stopped an ex-player from seemingly talking out about the club, with on-loan Brentford striker Neal Maupay firing shots at his parent club.
Speaking on BBC’s Match of the Day, the £15m flop signed by Frank Lampard would note: ‘’Last season I wasn’t me, and I didn’t manage to find myself at Everton so I’m glad to be back here, to win games and be with people who appreciate me, and vice versa, because I love the people in this club.’
How did Neal Maupay play for Everton?
It feels somewhat disingenuous from the former Seagulls man to be so brazen about a lack of faith shown by the Toffees, when he admittedly did little to merit such support.
As a striker, he was brought in to score goals. Even if his smaller stature did not suit the ideals of the football club, a return of just one goal across all competitions during the 2022/23 campaign was miserable and inexplicable.
Therefore, to see him so vocal following what was his first goal in 40 appearances, helping the Bees defeat West Ham United, will come across as laughable by Evertonians. Especially after pundit Chris Sutton told him to retire after his miss just last week.
To further emphasise just how poor Maupay was for Everton, across the sole Premier League season he spent in Royal Blue, the 5 foot 8 flop would record a 3% conversion rate despite managing 1.2 shots per game, across 27 matches too, via Sofascore.
He was given ample opportunity to prove his worth to Lampard and later Dyche, but failed miserably.
Regardless, the club will likely hope he can kick on in a Brentford shirt now, in order to recoup some of that fee unloaded in the summer of 2022.
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