Sigurdsson rocket gives Silva lift-off after Morgan red card
Gylfi Sigurdsson has always proved adept in the art of scoring spectacular goals and here was another one for the collection.
The Everton midfielder’s strike, his 50th Premier League goal, secured Marco Silva his first away win of the season as manager to give Leicester another sense of what might have been.
Sigurdsson (right) chose Everton ahead of Leicester in a £40 million move 18 months ago and his superb individual effort completed a frustrating afternoon for the hosts, who had captain Wes Morgan sent off for the second time in three league games.
Leicester had been showing signs of progress under manager Claude Puel but Sigurdsson put the brakes on their momentum with a “worldy” out of nothing, dipped in gold.
“It was fantastic for Gylfi. His quality in that moment showed how good he is. The way he took the ball and shot it was fantastic,” said Silva.
“That was the winning goal but, to be honest, we deserved the three points this afternoon.”
Everton were ahead after just seven minutes. Bernard, making his first league start, evaded Ricardo Pereira and Daniel Amartey on the right to send over a cross to the far post which was converted by Richarlison.
Leicester had won their previous three games and initially struggled to produce a response, with James Maddison – called up to the senior England squad this week – crowded out every time he took the ball.
The trusted long pass to Jamie Vardy continues to prove effective and the striker could have levelled ten minutes before half-time when he was sent clear with only Jordan Pickford to beat, but he poked his shot wide.
The equaliser did arrive, though, in the 39th minute after an outstanding individual goal from Pereira, City’s summer recruit from Porto.
After clearing an Everton corner, Leicester broke quickly and Pereira produced an excellent run with the ball from the halfway line, leaving Jonjoe Kenny on his backside in the area before driving a low shot into the bottom corner of the net.
Yet the turning point came in the 63rd minute when Morgan was dismissed. It was an innocuous foul on Richarlison which earned him a second caution and Morgan did not wait to hang around for referee Andre Marriner’s decision.
The momentum then shifted to the visitors, with Kasper Schmeichel required to push Sigurdsson’s shot around a post.
But Schmeichel was powerless in the 77th minute to prevent the Icelander’s brilliant shot from finding the top corner. Sigurdsson skipped away from Maddison to advance into space and bend an exquisite shot over the Leicester goalkeeper from 30 yards. It was a rocket from Sigurdsson, and Silva has lift-off. Puel said: “The sending-off was difficult to accept. This changed the scenario of the game because we dominated a lot.”