F365’s 3pm Blackout: Everton find new ways to torture their fans while others ponder transfer choices

Everton have done something that is incredibly Everton, even by their own sky-high standards in this field, while Ivan Toney and Aaron Ramsdale both left the GTech Stadium on Saturday with reason to ponder the choices that have led them to the current respective points in their careers.

Everton 2-3 Bournemouth: Toffees suffer most harrowing setback yet in a truly miserable August
Oh, Everton. Oh, mates. What can you say after that? They will try and cling to positives because they pretty much have to, but the positives are all going to turn to ash. Because all the positives just look even more like negatives in the wake of that truly absurd conclusion.

For 85 minutes, this was absolutely everything Sean Dyche and Everton’s players and Everton’s fans could have wanted. They weren’t just on course for a win, they were on course for a thoroughly deserved, thoroughly convincing win. They had been the better side by a wide margin, controlling proceedings in the first half before turning that superiority into goals at the start of the second.

Job done, a first win on the board, and those two harrowing defeats to Brighton and Spurs, if not quite forgotten, then at least cast to the back of the mind.

Then Everton conceded in the 87th, 92nd and 96th minutes. And Jordan Pickford had to make a couple of heroic saves at 2-2 as well.

Every club’s support is guilty of thinking their own side are uniquely idiotic or especially prone to avoidable and self-inflicted disaster but the difference with Everton fans here is that Everton fans are right.

This remains less a football club and more an exercise in how many different kinds of agony can be inflicted on fans who really don’t deserve it. So infuriating was this defeat, so entirely was the rug pulled from beneath them that there is now a compelling case to be made that the 4-0 thrashing at Spurs is in fact the least distressing result of Everton’s Premier League season thus far.

At least that one was broadly expected and featured almost none of that most cruel of emotions: hope. It was obvious what was coming from very early on there. Perhaps it shouldn’t have, given everything we know about Everton, but this one was full of hope and reasons to be cheerful before it suddenly absolutely did not. There just looked no way. They were cruising. The job seemed done.

But suddenly it wasn’t. And now, best of all, they get an international break to stew on the miserable, abject absurdity of it all while considering the very real relegation fight that looms on the horizon.

What a club.

Brentford 3-1 Southampton: Toney and Ramsdale both left to think on recent decisions
Selling your one-time star striker to Saudi Arabia for £40m on deadline day and then instantly confirming just how little you actually needed him these days is a bit of a triumph for Brentford, isn’t it?

Toney is going to make absolute fortunes at Al-Ahli, of course, but unlike others going there for a bumper final pay-day after achieving all there is to achieve the now former Brentford striker’s story feels different, sadder somehow. There’s a far greater degree of waste here – in a football if not financial sense – for a player who battled his way to the top and looked absolutely certain to get a move to one of the biggest clubs in the land a year or two ago.

He sat and watched this game to say his goodbyes before his career drifts off into irrelevance and Brentford don’t even miss him. It was already clear at the end of last season they could cope just fine without him and there’s more and more evidence at the start of this one.

If anything, Bryan Mbeumo scoring twice and Yoane Wissa a third was almost too on the nose.

And Toney wasn’t even the only man at the GTech left to think about choices he’s made. Quite the debut for Aaron Ramsdale after his move to Southampton. Sitting on the bench doesn’t seem so bad suddenly.

Leicester 1-2 Aston Villa: Amadou Onana’s previously concealed goal threat a lovely bonus for Villa
Amadou Onana’s second goal of the season after his move to Aston Villa from Everton this summer set the Villans on their way to a second win of the season and displayed the requisite bouncebackability after last weekend’s disappointment against Arsenal.

It also means this season is already joint top as Onana’s most successful league goal-scoring season ever, matching the two he scored for Everton last season and the two he managed for Hamburg in the German second tier back in 2020/21.

Fair enough, it’s not the most distressing or embarrassing thing that’s happened to Everton this season or even today, but Onana’s apparent emergence as a genuine goal threat alongside his more noted and established particular set of skills has been a huge early-season boon for Villa.

They show no real signs of falling off from last season’s high standards. Even that defeat to Arsenal last weekend could have looked very different had Ollie Watkins or David Raya had slightly different afternoons.

This second away win of the season was more comfortable than the final scoreline suggested, albeit Leicester were much improved in the second half and forced a nervy-ish finish. We’re still seeing just about enough from Leicester at this stage to suggest they’re the likeliest of the promoted teams to keep their heads above water. Steve Cooper knows what he’s doing and is setting them up to stay in games as long as possible, and that really could be enough.

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Wolves: Wolves dealt latest ref justice in Forest draw
Wolves’ start to the season has been far from ideal. A 2-0 loss at Arsenal on matchday one was understandable but conceding six to this Chelsea team is bloody not. That single result raised the loudest of alarm bells because how in tarnation are you conceding six at home to Chelsea?

Their trip to Nottingham Forest in the Morgan Gibbs-White derby got off to the worst start when Chris Wood nodded in to give the hosts the lead. Thankfully for Wolves, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde decided to belt one into the top corner from 25 yards. It was a right peach.

The 1-1 draw was probably fair based on the overall play but Wolves will be travelling back to the Midlands feeling very aggrieved – more so than Arsenal after Declan Rice’s debatable red card.

In a completely bizarre attempt to defend against Craig Dawson, goalscorer Wood ignored the ball as he locked eyes with the Wolves defender with the ball flying into the box. In doing so, the ball struck his flailing arm. We know the handball rules have changed – just as soon as we were beginning to end the old rules – but this looked like a stonewall penalty.

Alas, it was not given. Gary O’Neil was fuming. Absolutely fuming. His post-match press conference promises to be an all-timer. It really does, Clive. He was obviously booked for blowing his top just to rub salt in the wounds.

Wolves have not had much luck with VAR and referees in general in O’Neil’s reign, which started with a defeat at Manchester United in which Andre Onana got away with GBH on Sasa Kalajdzic. Their luck never changed with more controversial decisions which led to the club influencing a failed vote to get rid of the technology.

Again let down with two precious points dropped, Wolves were almost dealt the ultimate sucker punch when Wood popped up with the winner. Unfortunately for Forest but fortunately for the safety of the officials, he was offside.

Oh, Gary. We feel for you.

Ipswich 1-1 Fulham: Tractor Boys get first point as seven summer signings start
Ipswich will be happy to have a point on the board after being given Liverpool at home and Manchester City away to kick off their Premier League return.

Fulham at home represented a good chance to get that precious first victory of 2024/25 but two defeats in two meant confidence was hardly high, with virtually no momentum going into the fixture.

Kieran McKenna handed Kalvin Phillips his first start in Ipswich colours and the Manchester City loanee got 71 important minutes under his belt. More importantly, he didn’t absolutely f**k it for a goal. He did that a few times in only six months at West Ham last season.

Chiedozie Ogbene is another who came in for his full debut having only signed this week. He is bloody quick but was not quick enough to poke the ball past Bernd Leno in the 69th minute when sprung through. He joined fellow summer signings Phillips, Arijanet Muric, Jacob Greaves, Omari Hutchinson, Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap in the starting XI. McKenna obviously feels ready to chuck his new faces in together.

Jack Clarke also came off the bench in a reminder of the stellar business Ipswich have conducted this summer. The fact we have heard of their signings is a big bonus. Unlike with Burnley last year, who we for some reason did not consider as relegation fodder.

Even if Ipswich go down, they will have a Championship super team on their hands , with a superb manager in charge of them.

It was summer addition Delap who opened the scoring against Fulham with a powerful long-range effort. Leno probably should have done better it was still a great goal. The German’s attempt to palm the shot around the post was weak and the Cottagers were behind.

They did get their first away goal of the season through Adama Traore, which is a big boost considering how often his end product lets him down.

Ipswich’s summer business was impressed us but Fulham have also done very well, especially considering the loss of Joao Palhinha.

One win, one draw, and one loss is spot on for Marco Silva’s determinedly mid-table side, who we simply cannot picture either challenging for Europe or being in a relegation battle.

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