Barry’s Slice of Fortune Caps Everton’s Unbeaten Surge

• Thierno Barry nicks a fifth of the season with a fortuitous deflection to edge Ipswich
• Everton stay unbeaten and sit fifth, underpinned by Jordan Pickford’s excellence
• VAR rules out a second for offside interference
• Ipswich’s Abdul Fatawu sent off for simulation

Whether by accident or design, Thierno Barry is fast becoming the face of the new Everton. In a league where chequebooks shout loudest, David Moyes is quietly getting more from less. The club’s gleaming new home and modest net spend tell one story; the unbeaten start and fifth place tell the one that matters.

For those tracking momentum on the best football betting sites, this Everton side are starting to look a reliable proposition: organised, prickly, and always in the game. The winner against Ipswich summed it up—no frills, maximum value. James Tarkowski leathered a volley from distance, the ball thudded Barry in the midriff and wrong-footed Christian Walton. Fortunate? Absolutely. Effective? Completely. It’s Barry’s fifth of the season for the only senior striker on the books after deadline-day chaos—inelegant, perhaps, but bang on brand for Moyesball.

Barry’s Break and Moyes’s Blueprint

Moyes’s Everton don’t overcomplicate. They squeeze territory, trust set pieces and wide service, and flood the box. It nearly brought a second when Barry glanced in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s corner, only for VAR to chalk it off with Brennan Johnson judged offside in the keeper’s eyeline. Barry then headed wide from an Ainsley Maitland-Niles cross—chances continue to come despite the sale of Iliman Ndiaye. Moyes admitted the finishing still lags behind the volume: 21 shots, only two on target, the one gripe on an otherwise textbook afternoon.

Pickford’s Assurance and Everton’s Edge

This platform is underpinned by Jordan Pickford, who again delivered when it mattered: a sharp early stop from Emersonn, more from Fatawu, and another seconds after the restart from Julio Enciso. When Ipswich went down to ten—Abdul Fatawu dismissed for a second yellow after a dive—Everton still had to grind. They did, with Jarrad Branthwaite producing a heroic late block to deny Issa Diop. That’s five clean sheets in all competitions, three in the last eight days—a familiar Moyes calling card.

There’s more to come, too. Harrison Armstrong’s craft adds looseness in midfield but also incision; one gorgeous through ball sent Johnson clear, only for the finish to drift wide. Dewsbury-Hall nodded off target from a Tyler Dibling cross. If ruthlessness catches up with the chance creation, Everton go from awkward outsiders to something more substantial.

For now, they’re fifth and unflustered—proof that money isn’t everything when the structure is sound, the keeper is elite, and the manager’s principles still travel. Accidental or designed, Everton’s rise feels very deliberate.

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