Goodison holds breath after Branthwaite incident in Everton v Forest
Goodison Park held its breath after Jarrad Branthwaite fouled Morgan Gobbs-White in the Everton and Nottingham Forest clash, Joe Thomas says.
In the second half between the Toffees and the Tricky Trees on Sunday (29 December), the centre-back put in a strong challenge and received a yellow card in the process.
But for a moment, the home fans were nervous as the referee could’ve handed the Englishman a straight red due to the ferocity of the coming together with Gibbs-White.
On his personal X account (29 December), Thoms wrote: “Branthwaite shown a yellow for diving in on Gibbs-White. Wasn’t pretty, think Goodison was holding its breath for a second.”
Everton defence poor in Everton v Nottingham Forest
The Toffees backline struggled to contain Nuno Espirito Santo’s team, with James Tarkowski also at risk of being sent off.
Chris Wood opened the scoring for Forest before the break, and Gibbs-White doubled their lead in the second half in the 2-0 victory.
Ashley Young also looked worse for wear, with Vitalii Mykolenko the only defender to come away with any sort of credit from the fixture.
Sean Dyche has relied on Tarkowski and Branthwaite as his first-choice centre-back pairing this season, but it looks like the Toffees manager needs to turn things up a bit at Everton.
Dyche did make a change up top, handing Armando Broja his first start, but that wasn’t enough.
Jake O’Brien has hardly seen any minutes at the Merseyside outfit since his move in the summer of 2024, and Michael Keane has been dropped to the bench after initially impressing in the campaign.
The Blues have dropped to 16th in the English top-flight table and are just three points ahead of 18th-place Leicester.
Dyche is evidently fighting for his future at Goodison, with his contract expiring in six months, and the Toffees need to bounce back against Bournemouth on 4 January.
In other Everton news, Michael Dawson reacted to the Tarkowski incident in the Forest clash.
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