Huddersfield Town 0-2 Everton: Cenk Tosun and Idrissa Gueye increase Terriers' relegation fears
By Richard Morgan
Saturday 28 April 2018 19:23, UK
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Huddersfield 0-2 Everton
Everton beat Huddersfield 2-0 at The John Smith's Stadium to increase the Terriers' Premier League relegation fears.
The visitors opened the scoring six minutes before half-time thanks to Cenk Tosun's neat finish - the Turkey striker's fifth league goal since joining the club in January.
Sam Allardyce's side sealed the win when Idrissa Gueye drove home a second with just 13 minutes remaining to keep Everton eighth in the table.
Player ratings
Huddersfield: Lossl (6), Kongolo (6), Schindler (7), Zanka (6), Hadergjonaj (5), Van La Parra (6), Hogg (6), Mooy (6), Pritchard (7), Quaner (6), Mounie (6)
However, Huddersfield are now just three points clear of 18th-placed Southampton with three fixtures to play.
Despite dominating the first 45 minutes, it was Everton who went in ahead at the break after a careless moment from Rajiv Van La Parra, whose stray cross-field pass was intercepted by Theo Walcott.
The former Arsenal forward broke clear over halfway, before releasing Tosun, who still had work to do before finding the bottom left-hand corner.
Team news
Huddersfield, who were unchanged, were missing Elias Kachunga, Danny Williams and Michael Hefele with injury, while Tom Ince was also out with a hamstring problem.
Leighton Baines and Morgan Schneiderlin were available after recovering from knocks, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin was absent through injury.
And despite returning to training after a knee problem, this game came too soon for Iceland forward Gylfi Sigurdsson as the visitors made one change from Monday's 1-0 win over Newcastle with Nikola Vlasic replacing Yannick Bolasie.
That was the visitors' first effort on target in the game and they almost doubled their lead with their second, 12 minutes after half-time.
However, after playing a neat one-two in the box with Nikola Vlasic, Seamus Coleman was unable to beat Jonas Lossl at his near post, although that miss was soon forgotten as Everton went further ahead.
England watch
Jordan Pickford had a relatively quiet afternoon’s work at the John Smith’s, with the England international keeping what must surely be one of his easiest clean sheets of the season.
Meanwhile, left-back Leighton Baines produced another accomplished display for his side, reminding Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate that even at 33, he still has much to offer in that role after creating the visitors’ second, the 82nd Everton goal he has been involved in in the top flight.
Substitute Oumar Niasse broke clear to the right-hand byline, before picking out the unmarked Leighton Baines on the edge of the area. The left-back's lovely layoff was then driven home by Gueye as Everton made it just one defeat in their last seven league encounters.
Match stats
Everton have won two of their last three Premier League away games (W2 D1 L0), more than they had in their previous 23 on the road (W1 D9 L13)
Indeed, they've picked up just one fewer point away from home in their last three games (7 - W2 D1 L0) than they had in their first 15 on the road this season (8 - W1 D5 L9)
Huddersfield have failed to score in 19 different Premier League games this season, the joint-most by a promoted side in their debut season in the competition (level with Cardiff in 2013-14)
This was Everton's first away win in the league by more than one goal since Boxing Day 2016, and a 2-0 victory at Leicester
Leighton Baines has been involved in 82 Premier League goals for Everton (29 goals, 53 assists), behind only Romelu Lukaku (91) and Duncan Ferguson (83) for the Toffees in the competition
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David Wagner: We are disappointed because we started the first half well and we were able to take the momentum from the last game. We were aggressive, we brought intensity into the game and we limited them in the first half to one shot.
Unfortunately, this one shot on target was a goal and we were not able to use our half chances, which we had.
Second half was not as good as the first half, but in the end we got beaten by quality, something that we have to accept.
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David Wagner says his side have to accept they were beaten by quality and will move on quickly to their next match
Sam Allardyce: I can't honestly produce anymore than I'm doing. I'm sorry if some fans don't like it, but we're trying as hard as we possibly can, both myself, the staff and the players.
What can I say when you've got 14 points out of seven games when we were in a position of difficulty when I arrived.
I can only say it's just one of those things and if we keep winning hopefully they might change it to love.
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Sam Allardyce was delighted with his Everton's 2-0 victory away at Huddersfield as the Toffees continue their fine form
Pundit - Matt Le Tissier
Huddersfield barely threatened and I do not remember Jordan Pickford having to make any saves of note in the whole 90 minutes. And their last three games are against teams with a lot more quality than Everton have got...
It is quite apparent that the problem is creating the chances, not missing loads of them.
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Matt Le Tissier isn’t sure if Huddersfield are going to get another point this season after they slumped to a disappointing 2-0 loss at home to Everton
Man of the Match - Idrissa Gueye
The midfielder was a bundle of energy throughout the contest, crucially controlling the centre of the park for the visitors.
The 28-year-old scored his side's key second goal late on to confirm the three points.
Image:Idrissa Gueye scored Everton's second goal against Huddersfield
What's next?
Huddersfield take on champions Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday May 6, a match you can see live on Sky Sports Premier League.
Live Nissan Super Sunday
Meanwhile, Everton face struggling Southampton at Goodison Park on Saturday May 5.
