Munetsi rescues draw against Everton but Wolves miss Cunha’s cutting edge

It would be harsh to describe Wolves as a one-man team but Matheus Cunha is the key reason they have kept their heads above water in the Premier League. In his absence, they lacked imagination and quality in the final third, mustering a deserved draw against Everton when there was an opportunity to win.

Wolves are six points clear of the relegation zone, but on a weekend where Southampton and Ipswich have already lost, while Leicester face a difficult trip to Chelsea on Sunday, it felt like a missed opportunity. There were individual milestones as Jack Harrison scored his first goal in over a year for Everton and Marshall Munetsi opened his account for Wolves but it was a turgid affair at Molineux.

After being sent off for a headbutt at Bournemouth last week, Cunha’s role was reduced to posing for photos and signing autographs for mascots before kick-off. His head coach, Vítor Pereira, would have preferred him to have shown a similar amount of affability when in close proximity to Milos Kerkez and had him available for more than public relation duties.

Without Cunha, who has scored 13 and assisted a further four in the Premier League this season, Wolves were unable to make the most of enjoying two-thirds of possession throughout the match, rustling three shots on target. Munetsi had a first-half header saved from close range by Jordan Pickford, who also repelled a flash across goal by Jørgen Strand Larsen in the final quarter of a match that always seemed destined to end with parity.

“I don’t believe that we can build a team around a player because I believe Cunha is very important for us, as he can do special things, in a moment he can decide a game but the most important thing is the team,” Pereira said. “We showed today we have a team. The team showed the confidence to try and win the game with this spirit.” Unfortunately for the Wolves head coach, camaraderie cannot create or finish chances.

The visitors were more incisive in the early stages and had three chances in quick succession. Abdoulaye Doucouré had a shot blocked on the line, Jarrad Branthwaite’s goalbound header flicked wide off a golden shoulder and Beto was too slow to reach a Harrison cross.

Jack Harrison opens the scoring for Everton against Wolves. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA

It was a low quality affair from the start and the opening goal arrived through a mixture of incompetence and luck. Emmanuel Agbadou’s dreadful clearance was headed straight back by James Tarkowski to Jesper Lindstrøm. The right winger slipped when seeking out Harrison on the other side but the ball still found him, allowing him to control and shoot, with the ball nestling in the bottom corner thanks to a Matt Doherty deflection.

Jean-Ricner Bellegarde was the most likely candidate to provide dynamism in the final third for Wolves in Cunha’s absence. He flashed a shot inches wide from the edge of the box before initiating the equaliser. The Frenchman drove down the middle and slipped a pass into the area, it looked like Brathwaite had it covered but he got his feet in a muddle, allowing Munetsi to capitalise from close range seven minutes after the opener.

Injury prevented Munetsi from returning for the second half, although he did not miss much. Everton were equally as blunt as the hosts, missing their own spark in Iliman Ndiaye, forcing David Moyes to send on Carlos Alcaraz to sharpen up their attack. He created his side’s best chance of the second half by instigating a break and sending Beto through one-on-one but the goalkeeper José Sá got down quickly to his left and secured a point for his team.

Everton are eight unbeaten in the league and are no longer part of the relegation conversation after Moyes’ appointment two months ago. “If you’d given me that before we came in, I’d have been saying you were off your head,” Moyes said.

“We’re actually quite disappointed that the last three games drawn against Man United and Brentford away. Today, I see it slightly different. I think today’s a good point, whereas the other two games, I was thinking how we could have probably had more from.

“Today’s game, I think that we had to dig deep to keep the point, and the players showed something which maybe they hadn’t been doing before, so they stuck at it really good.”