Romelu Lukaku powers Everton to comeback win vs. West Brom
Romelu Lukaku scored twice to lead Everton back from a two-goal deficit to upset West Bromwich Albion in a sloppy match Monday night at the Hawthorns, 3-2. While the finish was grandstand, the overall game showcased the old, bad style of English football, one lacking in basic tactics and skill. The game did have passion at the end, and it was a good thing -- for without that, the match would have been unwatchable.
Monday night football doesn’t have the same fizz yet in England as in the USA, due in large part to the midweek European play that takes the very best teams out of the equation. That’s how you end up with a game that sees No. 14 playing No. 9 … with a shot at 5th place on the line. Hardly compelling stuff, and the sad bit is that the players know it.
Both teams labored to create, struggled to pass and mostly looked like 22 men who would have rather been doing anything else for a good part of an hour. Stasis is a bit of a Tony Pulis specialty, of course: he is a manager who eschews fullbacks, plays with a single striker, clogs the midfield, and then gets up and yells at his players to get wider and wider on the pitch. Tonight, even he could be glimpsed yawning. Chances were rare and largely unremarkable, and the stats lied: at the half it was claimed Everton had five shots, when in reality, they had had but one attempt, and that not even close to the goal.
That chance was spurned by a rather chunky-looking Ross Barkley, a player, believe it or not, once coveted in Spain. On Monday he looked lethargic, making poor crosses and driving his own teammates to outrage with some severe misses. The worst was in the 28th, when Gerard Deulofeu whipped in an inch-perfect cross through the Albion back line and suddenly Barkley had a clean look on goal. Except, he didn’t: he shanked the chance so badly that Deulofeu was visibly enraged behind him, possibly wondering what else he had to do to notch an assist.
That would prove costly to Everton as about 12 minutes later, the Toffees gifted WBA a goal. Keeper Tim Howard put a lazy outlet to Ramiro Fune Mori that was immediately conceded to a sliding Craig Dawson. Gareth Barry, panicking, swiped at the ball, but that only served to tee it to James Morrison. He calmly slid the ball up into space for Saido Berahino, and the player who once said he would never play for Albion again shot the ball off Howard’s boot and into the net.
After the break, Everton remained sleepy while Albion sensed blood in the water. They would pay in the 55th with Dawson beating Barkley in the air off a corner for an easy, free header at the back post. It was a dreadful lapse from both Howard and Barkley – but the goal did shake Everton to life.
Right off the ensuing kickoff, Deulofeu whipped in another superb cross, and this time it was Dawson being beat, with Lukaku shoving the Albion man out of the way and heading it home past Boaz Myhill. Game on.
"He has an elite brain and you can see when he puts his mind to it he can achieve anything," Everton boss Roberto Martinez said of Lukaku.
It wasn’t until the 75th minute that Everton were able to draw level, with Arouna Kone finishing off a fine flick over the back line by Lukaku. The goal appeared to be offside, with Kone clearly standing behind the defenders, but he got the benefit of the doubt from a linesman who himself looked out of position to judge. That should not diminish the work Lukaku put into crafting the goal: he collected the ball with his back to goal, muscled his defender off to make space, then set the ball on a plate for Kone.
Lukaku would then bull his way to the winner, again collecting the ball from Deulofeu, turning in a man of the match performance, off a long cross. Lukaku bulled his way through a dreadfully idle WBA defense, then fired the ball into the net from two yards. It was another bit of shambolic defending, and Pulis looked irate on the touchline. But again here, there was a whiff of a foul as the ball appeared to ricochet off Lukaku’s hand. No matter, it stood.
"The second goal is offside, it's marginal but it's offside, they just tell me now Lukaku has handballed it for the third one," West Brom manager Tony Pulis lamented.
"They have had a bit of fortune and we haven't but when you are 2-0 up you should see the game out.
Information from Press Association Sport was used in this report.
