Joe Thomas match verdict after Everton were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League

For the second time in a week a draw feels like a defeat for an Everton side that cannot buy a win.

On Monday, they could not have asked for better conditions to start a match as they faced a Crystal Palace side in poor form, with their best players injured and with no manager in the dugout.

On Saturday they could not have asked to end a game in more favourable circumstances as they led a frustrated Brighton & Hove Albion team that was down to 10 men as the match entered stoppage time.

The Blues won neither, and that is a problem. In so many ways it has felt as though the world has been against Everton for some time. On the occasions it is not, they simply have to take advantage. But, and it is hard but important to add that ‘but’ right now – there is some reason for hope they may eventually start to do that.

At the Amex Stadium, as the rain fell and the clock ticked towards 5pm, it finally appeared the Blues would exploit the luck that had fallen their way. Brighton were comfortably the better side in the first half and there would have been relief in the away dressing room when the half-time whistle blew and it remained goalless. Danny Welbeck and Simon Adingra were a menace through the middle and down the away side’s right. Welbeck twice threatened in the Everton box and was thwarted only by brave challenges from James Tarkowski and Ben Godfrey. Adingra, who led the teams out with his Africa Cup of Nations winners’ medal around his neck, fired inches over the angle from one of his many dangerous runs.

The Blues struggled to assert any authority during this period and chances were rare. Some did come though and Lewis Dunk did what his Everton counterparts did – save his side just in time as he beat Dominic Calvert-Lewin to a devilish Vitalii Mykolenko cross and slid in when Abdoulaye Doucoure prepared to shoot from close range.

The Blues were lucky to reach the break level after 45 minutes in which they had conceded eight corners. The warning sign for what was to come later was sounded as the final three of those led to attacking headers on target.

Having survived that onslaught, Everton grew into the match in the second half and the longer it continued the more the frustration in the home stands built. It is tempting to say Jarrad Branthwaite’s stunning, curling finish when a free kick fell to him in the box was against the run of play but just minutes earlier Doucoure had forced a sensational goal-line clearance from Tariq Lamptey when he met a Dwight McNeil cross with a volley that beat Bart Verbruggen. The Blues were a growing threat and the home fans knew it.

After Branthwaite sent the away end wild with his goal, the hosts threw everything at Everton. Billy Gilmour went too far and it is lucky the lunge on Amadou Onana that brought him a red card with 10 minutes to go did not appear to injure the Belgian international, who had been brought on when Idrissa Gueye suffered a groin problem just after the break.

Brighton, despite being a player down, flooded forward and the Blues retreated. In the nine minutes added on the pressure paid off and Dyche will be unhappy with how Dunk’s equaliser unfolded. A corner was partially cleared and when it was recycled to Pascal Gross, who shimmied past Beto before delivering a ball that should have been defended more robustly. Beto and Jack Harrison had good chances either side of that injury-time equaliser.

It was a sickening blow to an Everton side that needs to start winning games if it is to pull clear of the trouble the 10-point deduction has plunged this mid-table team into. Amid the desolation of this result, and frustration at the lengthening search for a first league win since December 16, there are positive signs, however.

Everton are creating chances. Most of them are from set-pieces but both Doucoure opportunities came from passages of play that have been notably absent during his two months sidelined. The return of Dyche’s most important player offers hope.

This is a side that is still fighting too – just look at Onana’s late equaliser against Palace, or Branthwaite’s stoppage-time leveller against Tottenham Hotspur. McNeil chased down a lost cause to create the Doucoure volley and this team contains a resilience that has been missing at this stage of the past two campaigns.

Branthwaite is continuing to grow as a presence and that was on display again on the south coast. A young player who could have withdrawn into himself after his unfortunate fall as Erling Haaland ran through on goal earlier this month is instead emerging as a leader. His second goal in a matter of weeks was vital, but so was the perfectly-timed challenge on Adingra in the second half, a tackle that led to a clenched fist celebration that was as emphatic as the one that followed his goal.

The headline “stats and facts”, to use a Dyche phrase, are two months and nine games without a Premier League win. For reasons far outside Dyche and his players’ control, the league table, for now at least, shows 21 points. Both results this week contain frustration.

But this team is stronger than the ones at this stage in both of the past two horrendous seasons. The points tally may not show it but the eight wins and sevens draws show progress is being made. The result against Brighton, in particular, might feel like two points lost. But it is still a good point. The result against Palace might have felt like two points lost. But it was one point more than previous versions of this side would have won. It might be nine league games without a win. But five of those were drawn. This is no time for celebration or complacency. But it is also not a time of lost hope.