Idrissa Gueye held his head in his hands. Jordan Pickford, 35 yards from his goalmouth, shouted in disgust. Jack Grealish looked stunned. Disgusted and stunned. With 20 minutes to go, Everton were two goals down, but it still felt as though they were in this game.

When the ball broke to Grealish, he cut inside and prepared to unleash a counter attack that could have been a route to a comeback, only to have his legs taken from beneath him by Rodrigo Bentancur.

It was a cynical foul and one the midfielder was lucky to escape a booking for. Grealish was not so fortunate, picking up a yellow card for his protest at Craig Pawson’s initial leniency. It was a split-second that summed up this game.

OPINION

Pedro Porro had been shown similar favour inside the first 10 minutes when his boot raked down the shins of Grealish. The decisions were not going Everton’s way. That was no clearer...