Everton vs. Crystal Palace: Winners and Losers from Premier League Game
Everton and Crystal Palace served up a five-goal feast in the Premier League on Sunday, with the away side taking the points in a 3-2 victory at Goodison Park.
On a day when Palace gained their first three points of the season under Neil Warnock, there were mistakes aplenty from both sides, with goals at both ends the result.
Here are our biggest winners and losers from the match.
Winner: Joe Ledley
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Palace were overrun for long periods, and it took some hard work to get them back in the match, both on and off the ball. In the centre of the field was Joe Ledley, playing most frequently as the central player who got forward to support the front man, Frazier Campbell, and to Ledley fell the job of both helping Palace stay in shape defensively but also break forward at pace.
His use of the ball was neat and impressive, he showed composure and good technique in the limited time Palace were able to be in possession in the final third and he was a good link player for his team, enabling them to be a threat to Everton's defence.
Yannick Bolasie was explosive and impressed at times, but Ledley was good throughout the 90 minutes for his side.
Loser: Tim Howard
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The biggest loser of the day has to be Tim Howard, who cost Everton two goals with moments of poor judgement.
Everton were leading and comfortable at 1-0 when a mix-up meant he charged out and conceded a penalty with a late tackle, before his horrendous failure to take a routine high cross into the box let the ball bounce off Frazier Campbell and into the back of the net for 2-1.
There wasn't much he could do about the third goal, but Howard faced three shots on target during the game, and they all ended up as goals.
Winners: Barry and McCarthy
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It wasn't an all-bad performance from Everton; they did dominate play and constructed plenty of chances by shifting the ball quickly in the centre, then down the channels, especially the right side, where Christian Atsu worked his magic.
Key to most of their best spells were the central midfield duo of Gareth Barry, who was largely excellent, and James McCarthy, who patrolled the middle of the park with aggression and intelligence, always looking to link play with his front men.
Leon Osman also started well and showed great creativity and vision—but faded later and made a mistake leading to one of the goals.
Loser: Romelu Lukaku
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Romelu Lukaku might have scored a goal for Everton to open the scoring, but for far too much of the game after that point he was a static passenger, offering little to his side's attack despite their hefty dominance of possession.
The Belgian was unimaginative in his use of the ball outside the box, shooting into a crowded penalty area or wastefully lofting passes out of play, never really looking like adding to his tally or creating something for a team-mate.
While Samuel Eto'o and, later, Steven Naismith offered good movement as Everton sought to get back into the game, Lukaku was more quiet and lofted his only other real late chance well off target from six yards.
Loser: Roberto Martinez
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We finish up with Everton manager Roberto Martinez, who has overseen a stick start to the season and didn't see his team's fortunes improve on Sunday.
Martinez set his team up to attack, and they did that from the start, but his side have serious defensive problems at the moment. Everton have conceded 13 in five games, the most in the entire league, ahead of the Merseyside derby next week.
His side were undone by that of Neil Warnock—who himself had his team set up wrong and didn't do much to rectify that—and Martinez has plenty of work ahead to climb back up the table.
