West Brom 0 Everton 2

After the madness of previous games, Everton’s first win of the season was refreshingly comfortable.

If you’d put together a wish-list for Saturday’s game, it probably would have read ‘comfortable win, clean sheet, Lukaku getting off the mark’. All duly arrived and, just in case that was not enough, we were all then treated to Paul Lambert and his Dean Army storming Slytherin House and taking back three points. Magic.

There was just one change to the line-up which started the Chelsea game, with John Stones replacing the injured Sylvain Distin. The big Frenchman apparently has a dead leg, and it’s clear, from the way Roberto Martinez has spoken about injuries such as the ones to him and others, that the manager is taking no risks, even on slight knocks. Given the cover we now have within the squad, it’s a smart move given the heavy upcoming fixture list. On the West Brom side, neither Anichebe or Lescott made the side – all those booing slacks, ironed for nothing.

One who was a doubt for Saturday was Lukaku, but he justified his inclusion straight away. Within two minutes, Barry fed Naismith who worked the ball out to Baines. He played a slightly wayward ball inside, but, fortunately, Metallica roadie Jonas Olsson played it straight back to Lukaku. The big Belgian, 20 yards out and on his wrong foot, took one touch and bent a beautiful swerving shot into the far corner. Get in.

When Lukaku doesn’t have to think like that you get a real glimpse of his potential. There is so much talent in there, and let’s hope this is the start of a good scoring run. He looked fitter and stronger again, and gave Olsson – who got a ton of stick from the home crowd – a torrid time before being replaced by Leon Osman after the second goal.

The rest of the first half was quite bitty – Everton certainly were not at their most fluent and struggled to get players like Aiden McGeady and Steven Naismith in the game. Fortunately, though, West Brom are absolutely crap and you never really felt they would score. All eyes were on the central defence, and there were a couple of nervous moments as the home side tried to press high up the pitch and throw high balls in, but in general things were much improved. Both Jagielka and Howard had much more assured games, and Stones was his usual ultra-calm self. He made the only really important defensive intervention of the first half, blocking well when the ball dropped to Saido Berahino, as other than that Howard did not have a save to make.

Everton ended the half on the front foot again – Mirallas sent a booming shot just over the bar – but overall there was room for improvement in the second period. A bit more control and attacking zip needed.

Thankfully, Martinez clearly got the message across and the Toffees looked much more ‘at-it’ after the break. Baines and Coleman pushed forward more, Naismith and McGeady were far more involved and Kevin Mirallas in particular was excellent. The West Brom defence were terrified of the Belgian’s pace and trickery, with ex-kopite no-mark Andre Wisdom not getting near him all half. With West Brom offering nothing in attack, you felt a second was a matter of when, rather than if.

In fact it should have come earlier than it did. Lukaku again ran at and skinned Olsson before sending a powerful drive on goal. Ben Foster made a good one-handed save, and the ball dropped to Naismith, unmarked, 10 yards out. Unfortunately though, the normally clinical Scot had slightly overrun the ball, and it crashed off his shin and over the bar. Incidentally, the TV replay of it is brilliant – 3,000 travelling Evertonians, perfectly in sync, hands-on-head in disbelief.

West Brom failed to heed the warning though. Shortly after Howard’s first meaningful action – bravely blocking a Wisdom cross at the feet of the truly rubbish Brown Ideye – the second goal arrived. Mirallas and Baines worked down the left, and Mirallas cut in and hit the ball with his right foot. He scuffed it a bit, straight at Foster, who obligingly dived straight over it. 2-0 and, despite Everton’s frailties when ahead this season, game over.

The only real question from there was whether Everton would add another goal or two. After the second Martinez immediately replaced Lukaku, presumably to rest him up. His replacement, Leon Osman, produced an excellent cameo, and his deflected shot forced a good save from Foster. Aiden McGeady – much improved second half – also fizzed a drive just wide, before he was also replaced by Muhamed Besic. He also impressed – possibly as a reaction to his mistake against Chelsea, he seemed determined to get involved, keep things simple and get the ball moving. It was a promising glimpse of what the Bosnian will offer in games to come.

Besic was heavily involved in the best move of the match, almost leading to the third goal Everton deserved. A cracking passing move also involving Mirallas, Osman and Baines led to the full-back breaking down the left. His ball inside was back-heeled by Mirallas to the onrushing Osman, who cracked in a shot first time. Just as Evertonian lips mouthed the word ‘Larissa’, Foster intervened with his best save of the match. Would have been a cracker.

Everton saw out the game very comfortably with few scares – one superb recovering block from Stones and, in the last minute, a wayward McCarthy backpass led to Howard making a brilliant double save – and fully deserved their first win of the season. It’s a most welcome three points and, despite the limitations of the opposition, stands us in good stead going into Thursday’s game against Wolfsburg.

Goodison under lights for a European game after a ‘Singing the Blues’ weekend – you can’t help but be excited for that.

Everton: Howard, Coleman, Jagielka, Stones, Baines, McCarthy, Barry, Mirallas, Naismith, McGeady, Lukaku.

Subs: Robles, Alcaraz, Besic (McGeady 88), Osman (Lukaku 68), Gibson, Atsu, Garbutt.

Goals – Lukaku (2), Mirallas (66)

MOM – Mirallas

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West Brom (A) Preview

Everton are back – well nearly. The international week at the start of the season always seems to take an age, and it comes at a crap time too – the season’s only just got going after all. Anyway, we’re almost through it, as Roberto Martinez takes his charges to the Hawthorns on Saturday looking for a first win of the season which would be most welcome.

John Stones and Leighton Baines started both games for England in the break, and both did OK – Baines in particular had a very good game in the qualifier in Switzerland. Stones is still never a full-back in a million years, but is a good enough player to gloss over that, and did a solid job at right back. Also, Phil Jagielka got a good 20 minutes or so which will boost his confidence, making several decent blocks and clearances as the Swiss pressed. With no injuries reported, that may have actually been a decent week for our England men.

Back home the injury news is mixed – Lukaku and Pienaar should be OK, but Osman and Eto’o are nursing what Martinez describes as ‘knocks’. It seems likely he will leave them out of Saturday’s game, with fixtures coming thick and fast in the next three weeks.

Key in Martinez’s mind seems to be the Europa League, with the Blues being handed a tough if exciting draw against Wolfsburg, Lille and Krasnodar, who knocked out Real Sociedad with minimal fuss in the qualifiers. Whilst there is an argument that we’d prefer an easy group stage just to get going, games like this are what you want to be involved in, and there’s definitely potential for a couple of cracking trips with big ticket allocations.  

Saturday marks the first of 7 games in 22 days for the Toffees, and it’d be great to start with a win. There have been plenty of positives in the first three games but, bottom line, we only have two points. If we’re serious about being towards the top of the league at the end of the season, winning games at teams like West Brom is a must. It would also contribute to, hopefully, a good,loud crowd when Wolfsburg come to Goodison on Thursday night.

A few Everton old-boys await within the Throstles’ staff (we won’t have any of this ‘Baggies’ nonsense). Alan Irvine was a real surprise appointment as their manager in the summer, but (games against Everton aside) you won’t find many who don’t wish him well. The ex-Everton player, coach and academy chief just seems a thoroughly good egg, and it would be nice to see him prove the numerous media doubters wrong. One of his first signings is another former Blue, Joleon Lescott, and despite the ignominious nature of his departure, he could be a great signing for WBA. Certainly, 

when he was playing regularly at Everton he was one of the best in the league. At the other end of the pitch, dear old Victor Anichebe is in and out of the side. There are good and bad memories of Victor– for every Kharkiv and Nuremberg there was a titty lip fit which incurred the wrath of the Gwladys Street – and you get the impression he knows he could have made more of himself and his time at Everton. A shame, really.

Everton will probably line up with a similar side to what played in the Chelsea game, unless Steven Pienaar returns. Despite the defensive issues, Martinez seems unlikely to drop Jagielka or Distin, and he’s been typically effusive in his praise for them this week. Of course that’s good to see – but you’d hope in private they’ve also had a boot up the arse. Martinez has also gushed about Aiden McGeady, who scored an absolute beauty for Ireland in midweek, so it will be interesting to see if he gets the nod over the less showy but more consistent Pienaar.

No excuses then. A ground-out 1-0 got us going this time last year – another would do fine.

5 more WBA and Everton old boys:

1.       Imre Varadi – Ask anyone who saw him and you’re guaranteed the words ‘dead fast’ and ‘crap touch’. Scored the winner in a derby though, so he gets a thumbs up;

2.       Paul Holmes – Garbage full back, most remembered for hitting his own crossbar in a cup game at Bolton, leading to their goal;

3.       David Burrows – Another crap full back, brought in by Mike Walker as a brainless part-ex for Tony Cottee. Utter shit and with a proper kopite face to boot;

4.        Kevin Kilbane –‘Zinedine’ – an honest, hardworking winger turned ubiquitous TV pundit. Did a great job for Everton;

5.       Kevin Campbell – God bless that man. If ever one player saved a team from oblivion, he did it. Suffered later with typical Smith injury mismanagement, but should be remembered as a genuine Everton legend.

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Everton 3 Chelsea 6

It’s difficult to know where to start after that.

Everton were again the architects of their own downfall, for the third time this season. If last week’s game was mental, this one went stark raving bonkers, particularly in the second half. Again, we saw some great attacking play from the Toffees, but the defending and decision making on show left a lot to be desired.

Chief culprit at the moment is Phil Jagielka, who is having a pretty awful time. As ever with modern Everton sides and players, there’s no lack of effort, and it may well be that the likeable club captain is trying too hard to be clever, and thus making mistakes. Unfortunately, one such mistake came after about 20 seconds, when, instead of running alongside Diego Costa and forcing him wide, Jagielka stepped out a fraction too late and allowed the deadly striker through to slot underneath Tim Howard. Bugger.

To make things worse, as would be the case throughout the game, Everton failed to gain their composure after the goal and made another quick mistake. The midfield sat off too far, Leighton Baines copied Jagielka before him and charged out of the line, leaving Branislav Ivanovic clear for an easy finish. Five minutes in, already needing snookers.

Replays later showed that Ivanovic was slightly offside, but it was one of those offsides which was very marginal, like the Naismith one last week, and the defending was the real culprit. In any event, Everton can hardly complain about the decisions first half as, shortly afterwards, Howard had a brain fart and came and caught the ball about two yards outside the area. Mercifully, the linesman on the Bullens side, hopeless all day, somehow missed it.

After about 20 minutes the game settled down a bit, with Everton – in particular through their two standout performers, Kevin Mirallas and Steven Naismith – scrapping very hard to get back into things. Lady Luck again wasn’t smiling after a crashing Lukaku header hit the crossbar – if your luck’s in, they hit the goalie and go in – and the rebound was correctly disallowed for offside. Naismith also skidded a shot from distance wide as Everton grew into the game. Again – no shortage of heart in the team, and they got their reward on half time.

 It was a beauty as well. Aiden McGeady, the only change in for Steven Pienaar, was very much in-and-out of the game, but had impact when he was – in this case a lovely ball inside the full-back to Coleman. His cross was a cracker, floated into space eight yards out, and Mirallas timed his run brilliantly to plant a header into the far top corner. Game on, and you hoped that the defensive calamities were now out of the system, paving the way for a second half fightback. Wrong!

Everton actually started the second half very well, with almost constant pressure in the Chelsea half, before, on 67 minutes, getting hit with a sucker punch. Eden Hazard went past McCarthy far too easily on the right and his pull back clipped the lunging Coleman and ended up in the net. Coleman had just been involved in a bit of handbags with Diego Costa, and the Chelsea man – who is absolutely brilliant, despite being a snide – followed up the goal with some kopite-level twattery, giving a few verbals until Tim Howard interjected. There was talk afterwards, from bellends like Graham Poll, that Howard could have again been sent off for this – he was booked – but in reality it was one of the few things that referee Jon Moss got right. Get on with the game.

Everton certainly did, as they exploded from the kick off and scored another lovely goal. McGeady furthered his reputation as a conundrum – doing nothing for 20 minutes followed by a bit of brilliance – and skinned a couple of defenders before playing a perfect pass to Naismith. The Scot finished clinically, and it’s a measure of his improvement and form that you honestly never thought he’d miss. Roberto Martinez immediately raised the Goodison crowd even more – McGeady off, Eto’o on.

What happened? Well another bit of crap defending, that’s what. Less than five minutes later, with Everton having failed to just calm down and control things a bit, Chelsea worked the ball sideways along the box to Nemanja Matic, who, with Distin only a couple of yards away, took a couple of touches to set himself. Close him down Sylvain. Close him down. CLOSE HIM DOWN FOR FUU…. Ahh bollocks. In off the post. It wasn’t as eye catching as some of the other goals conceded, but this was perhaps the worst – with Everton back in things, the defensive midfield was totally AWOL and the lack of pressure on Matic was appalling.

Remarkably, Everton again got straight back in things, as Baines’s free kick was headed home by Eto’o, in one of his first few touches. The debutant forward was one of the positives that can be taken from the game. He looks the real deal, with superb movement and intelligent play, and the likes of Lukaku can only learn from him. Lukaku himself has had a bit of stick after the match, but again his effort was good – another perhaps trying too hard – and if that continues, the goals will come. It’d be interesting to see Eto’o through the middle with Lukaku coming in from the right.

Unfortunately that attempt at Martinez-style positivity must stop there though, as some more Keystone Cops defending, only a minute later, finally took the game away from Everton. Baines, Distin and McCarthy were the culprits this time, allowing Ramires to waltz through unchallenged to score past Howard.

Everton tried to hit back again, and a lovely move involving Coleman and Eto’o led to a chance for Mirallas, which Courtois wonderfully saved onto the post. The Toffees were running out of ideas, though, and failed to really threaten any further. There was only time for the candle on the cake of shit defending to be lit.

Martinez introduced Muhamed Besic for a late debut – possibly 20 minutes too late, as both McCarthy and Barry had very poor second halves and looked knackered – and the Bosnian wasted no time in fitting in with his team mates. Receiving a simple pass, he inexplicably decided to just do a blind back-heel, setting Jon Obi Mikel through. Mikel played in Costa, who finished comfortably with Distin and Howard scrambling. Besic is obviously better than that and, of course, there were far more culpable on Saturday – but, fucking hell, it was one of the stupidest decisions you’re ever likely to see. The only consolation was that it was in a dead game, and so hopefully won’t now happen in tighter circumstances. You couldn’t make it up.

6-3 then. Not really rocket science in the final analysis – we’re good going forward, but painful at the back at the moment. The predictable immediate reaction has been that the defence needs ripping up and starting again, but that in all likelihood won’t work. John Stones will certainly be knocking on the door, and being on the lookout for a young, left-sided centre-half to eventually replace Distin is something that certainly should be done. The majority of mistakes are individual ones, though, and so it’s up to the players to cut them out. This is the same defensive unit that was almost impregnable at times last year, and it’s very unlikely that all of Jagielka, Distin, Baines, McCarthy, Barry and Howard will have such a poor game, all at the same time, again.

That said, this is one of the first real tests for Roberto Martinez – we’re looking like the naïve side we were all told he always produces – and it needs sorting out. Whether he decides to have a dip in the transfer market will be interesting, and you would hope that after the international break we will see a much sturdier Everton side.

Everton: Howard, Coleman, Jagielka, Distin, Baines, McCarthy, Barry, Mirallas, Naismith, McGeady, Lukaku.

Subs: Robles, Stones, Alcaraz, Besic (Lukaku 89), Osman, Eto’o (McGeady 70), Gibson.

Goals – Mirallas (45), Naismith (69), Eto’o (76)

MOM – Mirallas, with an honourable mention to Naismith

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