It felt fitting that on London Marathon weekend, Everton almost had to crawl over the finish line to see out these three points. Ask Frank Lampard if he cares.
His side are not at the stage where they can complain about how games are won. Crossing the line is all that matters. That’s no slight on Lampard’s side — they were worthy winners. Everton were slow out of the blocks but well in control, and raced past Southampton with two goals in two minutes.
But what will have pleased Lampard most was the last 15 minutes — the fight, resilience and doggedness to survive an aerial bombardment from James Ward-Prowse’s set-pieces.