Everton slipped to a late Boxing Day defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Yerry Mina opened the scoring after seven minutes as he was allowed to meet Dwight McNeil’s corner unmarked to heads past Jose Sa in the Park End goal.

But Frank Lampard’s side were level-pegged barely 15 minutes later through Daniel Podence beating Jordan Pickford at his near post with an easy finish.

The Blues suffered further ignominy deep in stoppage time as Rayan Ait-Nouri bundled the ball home a cross by fellow Wolves substitute Adama Traore.

Here were the key talking points from Goodison Park:

Blues in a mess of their own making

Depending on age, the Holy Trinity has two meanings for Evertonians.

Those of a particular vintage will instantly recall the Harvey-Kendall-Ball midfield axis which is now immortailsed in statue form outside Goodison.

Purists would attribute the term more to the unbreakable bond between players, fans and the manager; a union that all conspired in this defeat.

The Blues were undone in stoppage time as Goodison grew restless while James Tarkowski and Ben Godfrey exchanged passes on the halfway line.

Their summer signing responded by sending a long, hopeful ball towards the Gwladys Street, only for it to be returned as the visitors snatched the spoils.

Supporters’ frustrations, however, are not the overriding reason why Wolves were able to prosper courtesy of Rayan Ait-Nouri’s late, late sucker-punch.

Frank Lampard’s side had already created their own problems in trying to play it safe, having spurned numerous gilt-edged chances earlier in this encounter.

Everton’s manager carries the can for the personnel, game plan and changes, yet his players have their own cross to bear for sloppiness at both ends of the pitch.

DCL return won’t mask goal deficit

Everton’s starting XI highlighted an ongoing issue with firepower, namely that there were considerably more goals on their bench than the pitch itself.

Prior to Yerry Mina’s seventh-minute opener, the side had produced a paltry tally of 24 combined Premier League goals while wearing the royal blue shirt.

Admittedly Seamus Coleman’s haul of 21 across his Goodison career swelled the substitutes’ number of 35 but also typified their current shortcomings.

While Wolves were able to bolster their attacking options by sending on Adama Traore and Goncalo Guedes, Lampard elected to keep the faith.

But punting balls to Neal Maupay, at 5ft 6 inches, was never going to work, nor would prolonging the introduction of a more statuesque Tom Cannon.

Lampard remains optimistic that Dominic Calvert-Lewin will finally be back in contention for the trip to Manchester City, but even that appears a stretch.

The England striker’s fitness remains a thorny issue and his only actual involvement in this game was his image adorning one of the corner flags.

Even if Calvert-Lewin were to stay injury-free for more than a handful of games at a time, his goal return is not enough to supplement the shortfall.

Cannon is ready to explode

It was revealing that Goodison reserved its loudest cheer on a dismal Boxing Day afternoon for a player whose impacted proved to be highly limited.

The hype around Cannon has been brewing for several months after he had blazed a trail for Everton’s under-21 team through his goal-scoring exploits.

Already with two senior appearances to his name, in ignominous back-to-back defeats at Bournemouth, the Aintree-born striker finally made a home bow.

He was still made to wait for it, though, with eight minutes elapsing between being readied and eventually being sent on despite that prolonged period.

In the time it took for Lampard to finally decide on unleashing Cannon, Wolves had managed to make their fifth and final substitution of the match.

Naturally, the 19-year-old struggled to enjoy any lasting impact in a game where he was only able to see out the final seven minutes of normal time.

This may not go down as Cannon’s scrapbook moment for his boyhood club yet the buzz his late cameo generated is a sign of what is surely to follow.