At one point in the second half of Brighton 0-1 Everton, the Albion had all of Danny Welbeck, Georginio Rutter, Joao Pedro, Kauro Mitoma and Yankuba Minteh on the pitch at the same time. And yet they could still barely manage a shot on target, let alone score a goal against the Toffees.
Everton were 1-0 ahead by this point. Being in a relegation battle, it was not surprising to see them drop back to a complete blocking approach as the game wore on.
I counted six players across their defensive line on several occasions from my seat in E3C. Because Brighton are yet to beat a team in the bottom half of the table at home this season, visitors know this is the way to get a result at the Amex.
And until Fabian Hurzeler and Brighton find a way to combat teams who invoke these tactics, we will keep seeing it.
In addition to their defensive approach, Everton resorted to a great day of time wasting. It happens far too often in my opinion and players are allowed to get away with it too much.
May I politely suggest Jordan Pickford join Billy Smart’s circus as clown? The amount of waving with his arms he did to slow down taking goal kicks was comic. Sour grapes on my part?
Pickford felt so unconcerned by the threat posed by Brighton that he was confident standing miles out from his goal. All it needed was a Carlos Baleba rocket to fly over his head and he could have been caught out.
Everton even finished the game with 10 men when an injury struck after David Moyes had used all five subs. Brighton were given eight minutes of added time, in which they sent Bart Verburggen forward for their ninth corner of the game.
Yet there was still no success from set pieces or open play. Is this good enough for Europe? It is hard to see the Seagulls ending up in the top seven or eight with current home form against teams who are not Manchester United, Manchester City or Spurs.
Work for Hurzeler to do. He must have been thankful that Fulham lost to Manchester United on Sunday night, keeping Brighton just about in the top 10. Chelsea in sixth meanwhile are six points or two wins away.
It was a surprisingly lovely, sunny, bright afternoon. We arrived at the Amex in good time, parked up and did some people watching.
Mr Tony Bloom arrived punctually as usual. Seeing him in person is always great. I then had the pleasure of chatting to Mr Warren Aspinall.
He was on his way to the commentary box to check if Johnny Cantor had set everything up for him. Warren said he felt it would be a challenging game pitting two of his former clubs against each other, as an ex-Albion and Everton striker. He was not wrong.
Being a good lad and avoiding the temptation of fish and chips outside the ground, I made my way up to the East Upper concourse.
Where I succumbed to Albion Jelly Babies and a hot dog. It would be rude not to. If you have not tried them, I highly recommend them.
We were treated to a visit by the Christ’s Hospital Band, who expertly marched onto the East side touchline before kick off.
They played loud and proud, including Sussex By The Sea. It was great to hear and respect to all of them. They are one big band!
Tariq Lamptey started well on the left, pushing to get forward and put a good ball across the face of goal. Unfortunately, nobody was there to slot it home.
Everton suffered a blow when Dominic Calvert-Lewin went off injured after 13 minutes. Calvert-Lewin pulled up holding the upper part of his leg. He has suffered such rotten luck with injuries over the past few seasons, so this was sad to see for the Toffees.
Moyes is short of strikers currently but being a master tactician, he found a way around losing Calvert-Lewin.
This was Moyes’ 700th game as a Premier League manager, nearly the same number as Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. Some achievement to have stayed at the top for so long.
A communication error between Baleba and Bart Verbruggen almost gave Everton a comical own goal. Baleba knocked the ball past Verbruggen as the goalkeeper went to boot clear.
Luckily, it rolled just the right side of the post and out for a corner rather than into the net. There was a big sigh of relief in the East Upper. Had it gone in, I might have needed some oxygen!
The Toffees took the lead completely against the run of play as per usual just before half time. Joel Veltman found himself sandwiched between two Everton players whilst chasing the ball back towards the goal line.
Veltman fell forward under pressure from them, knocking the ball out for a corner with his right hand as he went to ground. Veltman said afterwards he was outstretching his arms to cushion his fall forward onto his face.
Referee Tim Robinson first awarded a corner. VAR Graham Scott, however, spotted the use of hand from Veltman and summoned Mr Robinson to the pitch side monitor.
We all knew what that meant. Mr Robinson of West Sussex gave Everton a penalty. Verbruggen went the right way but Iliman Ndiaye struck the kick too far into the corner to be kept out.
Brighton had plenty of the ball in the second half but other than a deflected shot whose loop left Pickford panicked, the Albion did not manage an effort on target.
A complete outsider would look at the statistics on the BBC Sport website afterwards and see 68.9 percent possession for Brighton and 16 shots.
They might think the Albion played well based on those numbers. But we all know Brighton should be far better than what we saw on the pitch.
The trip to Nottingham Forest next will hopefully be a different story. Forest will not sit back and ask Brighton to break them down.
It will be a game better suited to the Albion. So let’s keep the faith, forget about Everton and move onto the Tricky Trees.
Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony