Everton-Sunderland Recap: Toffees Dominate Early and Often, Win 7-1

With Sunderland still pushing forward in an attempt to reduce the defecate, they increasingly left their defence exposed.

So it was as another long ball forward found Cahill breaking into the Sunderland area. With the goal at his mercy he placed the ball into the bottom right corner.

4-1 Everton.

At last Everton could relax. With only half an hour left in a match were they held a 3-goal lead they began to play the ball around.

Sunderland were well and truly beaten, and any semblance of shape or confidence was lost.

The greatest example of this came just after Cahill’s second goal.

Michael Chopra found him self with time and space in the Everton area. With the whole goal to aim at he could only place a tame effort wide of the left post.

It was his last action of the day as he was replaced by Andy Cole shortly after.

Everton continued to expose Sunderland’s weak defence. Yet another long ball out of the Everton half found a blue shirted player running forward.

This time it was Yakubu bearing down on the Sunderland goal.

5-1 Everton.

Every time Everton went forward Sunderland opened up like the Red Sea. And Everton couldn’t help but score.

But Cahill and Yakubu wouldn’t get a chance to get their hat tricks. David Moyes decided to protect his top scores and removed them from harms way, replacing them with Victor Anichebe and Andrew Johnson.

It wasn’t long until Johnson got into the action.

Yes, you guessed it. Another long ball allowed him to use his blistering pace to get away from his marker. Once in the area he picked his spot and calmly stroked the ball home.

6-1 Everton.

Not so long ago we would have expected Johnson to miss a one on one with the keeper. It’s amazing to see how different players are when there is no pressure on them. Hopefully this goal will give him the confidence to play the same way when there is a little more a stake.

Referee Phil Dowd must have been in a charitable mood as Everton had two good penalty clams turned down. He probably thought there was no point in heaping more hardship on Sunderland. Everton weren’t thinking the same.

Leon Osman, who had played really well all game, picked the ball up on the Everton right. With space in front of him, he ran the ball forward. The Sunderland players fell back as he approached, so finding more space he continued his run.

Again, back fell the opposition. So Osman cut inside and let fly from the edge of the area.

7-1 Everton.

The goal was no more then Osman deserved. He had seen a couple of shots saved by Gordon but he had kept plugging away and in the end his goal was a beauty.

And that was it, the match was over. Once a season your team has a amazing game were the dominant from start to finish but even at 7-1 this was not that game.
 
Conclusions

You had to feel for Sunderland and their supporters. They had done really well in getting into the Premier League and didn’t deserve this score line.

Many teams come to Goodison Park and only bring a fraction of the supporters they are entitled to. Sunderland had sold out their entire allocation of tickets and those fans would have had to endure a very long trip home.

And spare a thought for poor Craig Gordon in the Sunderland goal. Not one of the goals was his fault. In fact the Scotland keeper had a good game. Yet he still left with seven goals past him.

It’s no good spending £9 million on a keeper if you’re going to place a defence of this standard in front of him. Roy Keane will have to do some serious thinking about his back line before their next game.

Everton had played some really good football, but the biggest improvement was in the finishing in front of goal. Every player who had been given a chance to score had taken the opportunity.

It was a joy to watch. And I’m hoping they can show the same ability in the hectic December they are facing.

That starts with a difficult trip to the South Coast to face Portsmouth.

 Unfortunately I’ll be missing the next two home games (Zenit St Petersburg and Fulham) so the next game I’ll be writing about will be the League game on Boxing Day against Bolton Wanderers.

By that time we’ll see how Everton do in the UEFA Cup, the League Cup and the big league match against Manchester United.

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