Iliman Ndiaye says it felt great to score on his return from injury in Everton’s 1-1 Premier League draw with Arsenal on Saturday, Afrosport reports.
The Senegal winger has missed the Toffees’ last five league games due to a knee injury and made his first start against the Gunners on his return, levelling from the penalty spot at the start of the second half after Leandro Trossard put Arsenal ahead in the first half.
The 25-year-old revealed he wanted to give the spot kick duty to Guinea-Bissau forward Beto before deciding to take the responsibility himself.
“I think it’s a great point,” Iliman Ndiaye said. “We lost earlier this week and we needed to turn things around today and get a good result, which I think we did today.
“It felt great [to be back and get a goal]. I wanted to give the penalty to Beto but I thought I had it in me to get on the scoresheet, so, yes, I’m happy and I’m really happy to be back.”
Reacting on Ndiaye’s performance, Everton boss, David Moyes said: “It was nice to see Ili back. I don’t think he’s at his sharpest or quite at full throttle yet, but that would be expected because we’re only getting him back in.
“He’s trained really, really well and we felt, why would we not put him in and give him a start? Maybe another time we may have waited but we just felt with the two games in three days we thought we should get him started.”
Back in the XI. Back on the scoresheet.
@iliman_ndiaye
— Everton (@Everton) April 5, 2025
Iliman Ndiaye has now scored seven goals in the Premier League for Everton this season, matching his second best league tally in England during the 2021-22 season with Sheffield United.
