Everton vs. Sunderland, Goodison Park, 24th November 2007Preview
Coming into this match Sunderland find them selves two points above the relegation zone, in their first season back in the Premier League.
It’s fair to say that, like most teams, they have found it hard going after promotion from The Championship. But I do believe Roy Keane has what it takes to keep his team in the top flight.
The two victories they have had were at their home ground, The Stadium of Light.
That was against a very under par Tottenham team and a Reading side that is around the same calibre as Sunderland, in a footballing sense.
In fact they have only managed 2 points away from home, but they will be buoyed after securing a point against their fierce local rivals, Newcastle United, in their last league game.
Everton will be looking to keep their impressive run of form going. It’s been seven games since they lost in any competition.
Their latest victory coming in the UEFA Cup, beating FC Nurnberg 2-0 in Germany. They followed that with an unlikely draw away at Chelsea. Tim Cahill yet again in the right spot to pull a result out of the bag.
Manager David Moyes has luxury of selecting a team from a fully fit squad.
With a hectic December of nine games fast approaching, it will be interesting to see who he selects for a game Evertonians full expect to win.
Will it be his first choice team or will he rest some players so he has a fresh squad later in the month?
Some good news out of Goodison Park is many of the team have been agreeing new deals to keep them at Everton.
Speculation on their futures always surrounds the better players. Hopefully their commitment to the club will stop the stories of their immanent departure, at least for a few seasons.
But good news is always followed by bad. I was sad to see Everton’s assistant manager, Alan Irvine, leave Goodison to become Preston North End’s new manager.
The former Everton player has been a huge success since joining from Newcastle Utd as a coach.
It was only a mater of time until Irvine got him self a manager’s job, and Preston is a club steeped in history.
Irvine will be a success at Deepdale, and I fully expect him to guide his new team into the Premier League.
The Match
When people see the final score they will think it was a one-way game. That would not exactly be true. In fact it was Sunderland who made the brightest start out of the two teams.
It wasn’t until the 11 minute that Everton got onto the score sheet, and that was due to a large amount of luck.
A long ball forward by goalkeeper Tim Howard wasn’t dealt with be the Sunderland defence. Yakubu pounced onto the mistake and, using his strength to out mussel the retreating defender, he unleashed a powerful shot which deflected of an out stretched foot and looped over the head the Gordon in the Sunderland goal.
1-0 Everton.
The simplicity of the goal should have set alarm bells ringing in the Sunderland dug out, but it would be too late by the time they did anything to solve the problem.
While the first goal had a slice of luck, the build up to the second was stunning. The ball was played to Arteta deep inside the Sunderland penalty area.
He turned beautifully to wrong foot the defender, and passed the ball inside to Phil Neville.
The Everton skipper played it first time to the back post where Cahill waited. With his back to goal held a Sunderland player at arms length while he swivelled and shot low into the opposite corner.
2-0 Everton.
The goal was skilfully crafted but Cahill should never have been allowed the time to get his shot away.
Sunderland didn’t let the score get the better of them and should have scored them selves in the 23rd minute. But Leadbitter could only watch as his header drifted wide of the goal.
In fact both teams had chances to score, but it wasn’t until 5 minutes from the interval that we saw the third and possible the best goal of the match.
Pienaar made some good progress down the Everton left wing. He passed the ball to the Everton left back Nuno Valente who did well to take it forward and then turn back inside to pass the ball back to Pienaar, who had continued his run inside the area.
The pass was perfect and Pienaar, using the outside of his right foot, swept the ball into the top right corner of the Sunderland net.
3-0 Everton.
If the Sunderland defence had trouble with long balls and attackers with their back to goal, they didn’t have a chance stopping this one.
Everton’s build up was just too good.
At 3-0 before half time any game of football should be over. And while the crowd are allowed the luxury of thinking such thoughts, professional footballers know better, or should do.
Unfortunately Everton’s players had a momentary loss of concentration.
A shot from the Everton right was saved at full stretch by Howard, while his defenders looked on.
It was Kenwyne Jones who reacted first to the loose ball and fired in a shot that had goal written all over it. But Howard had some how managed to get him self up and into a position to push the shot onto the post.
Still the Everton defence looked on helplessly as ball fell to Dwight Yorke who had the whole goal to aim at.
3-1 Everton.
That was the last action of a pulsating first half. While Everton had taken their chances big questions had to be asked about the Sunderland defence. If they continued to defend so badly it would be a long journey home for the many supporters that had made the trip from Sunderland.
Icon
But the goal they had scored had given them some hope. And so would the substitutions at the start of the second half. Off went Yorke and Etuhu, and on came Wallace and Collins as Roy Keane looked to make the most of the Sunderland attacking moves.
As in the first half it was Sunderland who made the best start, no doubt with a few choice words still ringing in their ears from their manager.
A few shots kept both keepers busy but it was Everton who would score to finally kill the game.
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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