Following Sunderland’s derby victory last weekend which earned Sunderland their first victory of the season, The Black Cats travelled to Merseyside to face Everton.
After a minutes silence pre-match, Sunderland started the game very brightly. A new formation saw Sunderland set up with 3 centre-backs, consisting of Billy Jones, Wes Brown and Sebastian Coates. The first real chance of the game came in the 3rd minute, with wing-back van Aanholt smashing his shot off the post, after Fletcher’s pull back set him up nicely.
Everton came into the game a lot more following Sunderland striking of the woodwork, with the lively Barkley interlinking well with Lukaku, with the Belgian’s shot not troubling Pantilimon much. Barkley continued to trouble the Sunderland defence, when given far too much time on the ball he drove forward, and fired his shot from 25 yards out wide of the Sunderland’s stoppers right-hand post.
Few chances for either side came after Barkley’s shot, with forwards Defoe and Fletcher linking well, but Lukaku using his physicality and size well to be a constant threat to the back line. Sunderland were the next side to have a real chance when they broke, with Defoe’s shot being saved well by Howard, but only for the rebound to fall straight to Adam Johnson. Johnson didn’t strike his shot cleanly, but saw the ball bobble towards the goal and bounce off the same post van Aanholt had already struck.
Gerard Deulofeu threatened van Aanholt down the right with his pace and trickery, but the wing-back made a good tackle to deny the Everton man. But it didn’t last long. Deulofeu continued his threat, by breaking the offside trap and running through on to Sunderland’s goal. Billy Jones managed to get back and attempted to stop the shot, but the ball trickled under both Jones’ and Pantilimon’s legs and into the back of the net. 1-0 to The Toffee’s.
An almost identical move saw Deulofeu break clear again just 1 minute later, but this time his square ball inside the box to Lukaku failed to reach the Belgian international. The first bit of controversy for the day came when Fletcher’s volley potentially struck the arm of Gareth Barry, but Marriner stood firm. Everton were soon forced into a change when Galloway came on to replace the injured Oviedo at left-back. Barry was again in the action when he gave the ball away cheaply, for Defoe to send Johnson in, but the winger’s shot curled not far wide of Howard’s goal.
Things suddenly went from bad to worse for the Wearsiders when Kone first introduced himself to the game to double the home side’s advantage. Linking up excellently on the edge of the box with Lukaku, Kone received the ball back and fired past Pantilimon’s right-hand and into the roof of the net.
Sunderland struggled to get back into the game after Kone’s strike, and things didn’t help when Cattermole was forced off and replaced by Jack Rodwell to face his former side. The next chance fell to the bright Lukaku, but his shot was straight at Pantilimon and the Romanian international made no mistakes. However, a lifeline appeared for Sunderland. On the stroke of half-time, Defoe beat Stones to the ball, flicked it over Funes Mori and cracked the ball past Howard into the back of the net. 2-1 at half-time
Sunderland started the second half the same way they ended the first, with Steven Fletcher popping up to score his second in his last 2 games, to pull Sunderland level. A good cross in from van Aanholt saw Fletcher rise higher than Funes Mori and head the ball into the back of the net. A rare glimmer of hope filled the travelling supporters, even though briefly.
Following yellow cards for Stones and Deolofeu, for a late tackle and diving respectively, Everton restored their lead. A cross aimed for Lukaku came into the Sunderland box and Coates, trying to do all he could to stop Lukaku scoring, deflected the ball into his own net. Things quickly got worse for The Black Cats when Lukaku restored The Toffee’s 2 goal lead by running onto Deolofeu’s perfectly weighted pass, rounding Pantilimon and slotting the ball into the empty net.
Just 3 minutes later Kone scored his second goal of the game. An excellent pass from McCarthy released Kone who brilliantly put the ball past the oncoming Pantilimon and into the far top corner. Following the 5th goal, Sunderland seemingly gave up, allowing Everton all the time in the world to slowly pass the ball around the midfield, and gradually build up into an attack. One of the most positive signs for Sunderland came in the 73rd minute when Duncan Watmore came off the bench replacing Steven Fletcher. But sadly, the first thing Watmore witnessed was Kone earning the match ball. Lukaku picked out a perfect outside-of-the-boot cross to allow Kone to nod home from 6 yards out. An excellent performance by both the goal scorer and goal supplier.
Watmore ran around asking for the ball in every position and got a chance to receive the ball and run at Stones. Watmore excellently got round Stones with some nice footwork and ran into the box. Sadly for Watmore, when he got himself in a great position, there wasn’t much support from his team mates to tap in his squared ball. Mirallas nearly scored the 9th goal of the game when he attempted a curled shot but just missed the far post by a matter of inches.
It was Watmore’s turn to nearly score the 9th of the game, when he broke the offside trap and ran into Howard’s box, but went for a chip over Howard which the American saved comfortably before he saved Defoe’s effort from the edge of the box shortly before the final whistle.
A shocking performance from Sunderland will hopefully see the back off playing with 3 centre-backs and wing-backs. But a thoroughly deserved win for Everton, despite 6-2 being flattering. Sunderland’s next game sees Southampton make the long journey up to the North East where hopefully Sunderland can play much better and earn themselves some respect back.
