Nmecha penalty secures Leeds victory after Tarkowski handball
With virtually his first touch of the game, Lukas Nmecha beat Jordan Pickford with a confident spot-kick low to the keeper's left to earn Leeds victory over Everton. Pic: Danny Lawson/PA Wire.
It was all set up for Jack Grealish to ride to the rescue, to inject some much-needed life into proceedings but in fairness to Everton's high-profile new arrival, a moribund contest looked to have long-since gone past the point of 'do not resuscitate'.
That was until, with a little over five minutes remaining, James Tarkowski rather unwisely - given his position deep in his own area - attempted to block a shot from Anton Stach with a diving block that saw the ball strike the Everton defender's arm.
Elland Road erupted, VAR confirmed referee Chris Kavanagh's decision to award a penalty and amidst the chaos substitute Lukas Nmecha, with virtually his first touch, beat Jordan Pickford with a confident spot-kick low to the keeper's left.
Grealish was given a little over 20 minutes to conjure up something memorable, but was understandably rusty given the way he has drifted out of the picture at Manchester City over the past 18 months, and was duly unable to salvage something from a game Everton didn't really deserve anything from in any case given their ultra-cautious approach.
For 70 minutes Everton were seemingly just waiting, allowing Daniel Farke's ever-willing side, rope-a-dope style, to slowly but surely empty the fuel tank in the vain effort to break the deadlock as they kept banging their heads against a wall of blue.
All the time, Grealish sat and watched from the visitors' bench, occasionally donning an orange bib to stretch his legs and run the gauntlet of abuse from home fans along the main stand touchline as he waited for his chance to sprinkle a bit of stardust on what in every other aspect was very much a workmanlike contest.
Everton had lost their three most recent season curtain-raisers and after making a woeful start to last season, David Moyes' men travelled across the Pennines not to lose rather than aiming to win. They came close to achieving that rather unambitious aim but ultimately fell short.
It wasn't pretty but it was perhaps a back-handed compliment to their opponents who scurried and hurried and hassled and snapped but seemed to lose all sense of purpose and lack any semblance of quality when they made their way into the Everton box - until the late favour from the hapless Tarkowski.
Leeds made progressively more productive forays towards goal, Willy Gnonto by some distance their main source of threat. The Italian gradually found his range with a stinging first-half effort narrowly over from 20 yards, a rare effort on target, albeit one easily saved, shortly after the break, before he had Pickford scrambling to cover his near post by firing into the side-netting.
Even given the late surge in form following the return of the Scot to Goodison Park at the start of the year, Everton scored just 25 goals from open play in the entirety of the season, a paltry figure all but two of the three relegated teams in the top flight failed to better.
That quarter of a century might be an ambitious target on the evidence of this safety-first approach, one that will surely be met by short shrift by 50,000 Evertonians every other week at their pristine new home on the banks of the Mersey.
Everton were forced to weather an early storm as Leeds' players attempted to channel on the pitch the predictably febrile passion from the stands as Elland Road staged its first Premier League fixture for well in excess of two years.
It was a high-octane opening from the hosts more reminiscent of the end of their Championship title-winning season when they would overwhelm opponents from the first whistle. The main difference on this occasion was that against wilting second-tier sides they were often two goals to the good inside 20 minutes but to their credit Everton are made of far sterner stuff.
A steadfast wall of blue if not happily then relatively comfortably soaked up the waves of pressure to ensure Pickford remained largely unemployed, in fact both goalkeepers had the most comfortable of introductions to the new season with much of the action concentrated between halfway and the Everton penalty area.
The decibel level from home supporters proved to be inversely proportional to the growing realisation that the hosts would struggle to unlock their opening game visitors, let alone repeat the steamrolling of most of the hapless visitors to Elland Road last season.
For all their territorial dominance the hosts had singularly failed to carve-out a presentable opening and half-time was just a couple of minutes away when Pickford was concerned momentarily, only for from an Ethan Ampadu long throw, Gnonto's well-struck 20-yard effort to rise harmlessly over the bar.
That such a tame effort even merits mention underlines the lack of any discernible goalmouth action at either end. The cursory four seconds of first-half stoppage-time added by Kavanagh perhaps hinted at the general sense of futility of the men in white's efforts to crack what was proving to be a largely immovable object.
The pattern continued into the second-half and Leeds at least made a modicum of progress with a shot on target from the ever-willing, albeit one that was straight at Pickford and comfortably gathered. The England goalkeeper looked almost happy to have something to occupy himself with.
The upward curve of the ball's proximity to Everton's goal continued when shortly before the hour Gnonto turned and shot in an instant to have the Everton keeper scrambling towards his near post as the ball crashed into the side-netting. It was accompanied by a brief but erroneous goal celebration from thousands of supporters desperate for their side who had lost just one of their previous 28 matches to stretch that impressive record.
Given his growing influence, Gnonto was rather surprisingly withdrawn in favour of Brenden Aaronson for the final 25 minutes, shortly before Grealish entered the fray but by that point the game was beyond saving as a spectacle. Ao Tanaka fired narrowly over from the edge of the area before Tarkowski unwittingly provided the evening's defining moment to literally hand the hosts a perfect start to the campaign.
Perri 7; Bogle 7, Rodon 7, Struijk 7, Gudmundsson 7; Stach 6, Ampadu 8 (Gruev 78, 6); James 6 (Harrison 78, 6), Tanaka 6, Gnonto 7 (Aaronson 66, 6); Piroe 6 (Nmecha 78, 7). Booked: Tanaka.
Pickford 7; O'Brien 7, Tarkowski 5, Keane 7, Garner; Iroegbunam 6 (Grealish 71, ), Gueye 6; Alcaraz 7 (Barry 86, 6), Dewsbury-Hall 7, N-Diaye 6; Beto 6. Booked: Alcaraz, Iroegbunam.
Chris Kavanagh
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