Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti made a bold decision today.
For the trip to Newcastle United, Ancelotti dropped Toffees goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and gave a debut to new boy Robin Olsen.
Pickford had endured an incident-filled first six games of the Premier League season for Everton, having made a few howlers and committed the foul which led to Virgil van Dijk being ruled out for the rest of the season.
As a result, the Italian took him out of the firing line – and what a good decision it proved to be.
Everton still lost, going down 2-1 at St James’s Park, but the scoreline could and would have been much worse if not for Olsen.
The 30-year-old, who joined the Blues on loan from Roma last month, produced a number of exceptional saves to keep the Magpies at bay.
On an individual level, his bow couldn’t have gone much better and here’s how some Everton fans have reacted to his performance on Twitter this evening:
Olsen, who joined Roma from Copenhagen for £10.8 million in 2018, is certainly Everton’s first-choice stopper now.
It makes little sense for Ancelotti to bring back Pickford after the Swede produced a performance of that calibre and it does look like Pickford has it all to do now.
Earlier this week, Goodison Park legend Nigel Martyn spoke exclusively to Everton News about Pickford’s struggles and that can be found here.
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