Everton scramble to a first point but you already fear for them, you really do

Everton fans may already be looking around desperately for the three teams worse than them this season. It’s not easy and, on this evidence, Nottingham Forest aren’t one of them.

It’s a point on the board, at least.

For Everton and Frank Lampard that crumb of comfort must be clung to because things really could be even worse.

If a narrow defeat to Chelsea on the opening day could be easily written off as one of those things, losing at Aston Villa in the Golden Generation Derby has to be placed in the context of Villa’s two other games this season: grim defeats at Bournemouth and Crystal Palace.

It’s clearly far too early to start talking about must-win games, but for Everton a home match against a newly-promoted side came pretty close to that given what happened last season and at the start to this one.

Yet Everton were poor again. They are in desperate need of reinforcements yet face the reality of having to lose a significant portion of the talent that remains at Goodison Park to do it. Another long, hard season awaits. But who knows, maybe this point will prove to be a crucial one by the time May rolls around. Maybe this was a six-pointer.

But it’s Nottingham Forest you’d currently feel more confident about this season. They’ve been almost absurdly proactive in the transfer market and were growing in confidence before finally making the breakthrough here when Brennan Johnson capitalised on a pretty soft piece of goalkeeping from Jordan Pickford.

What should really worry Evertonians is just how clearly that goal had been coming. Everton had huffed and puffed to no great effect and the longer the game went on with the Toffees having nothing really to call on from the bench, the more Forest came into it.

By the time they scored they were looking much the likelier to do so, albeit in a game that still felt incredibly 0-0.

Everton must get some credit for dragging themselves back from the brink of three straight defeats to start the season, but as with the demi-comeback at Villa the frustration remains that it came so late and only when the situation was already grave.

The goal itself was both excellent yet also revealing of Everton’s flaws, coming as it did via a redemptive Pickford long pass (not long ball) and smart control and finish from Demarai Gray.

The one time Everton looked good all afternoon was when bypassing pretty much their entire team.

The problem for Everton is that almost everyone who could potentially be around…