Home News Everton give their fans a late Christmas present with victory against Leicester

Everton give their fans a late Christmas present with victory against Leicester

0

Everton went into the match against Leicester looking to put their recent defeat against Liverpool behind them, and they went into the game with a number of changes to their line-up. Joel replaced the injured Stekelenburg in goal and they employed what could be loosely described as a back five in their formation. The pattern of the game can be described as being similar to recent games involving Everton, in which the side seems to start the game slow and sluggish and once they make it to the final third of the field they appear to lose any idea of what they want to do with the ball. However the difference in this game was the fact that the Everton defence was not being placed under any undue pressure, this was allowing Everton to relax a bit more as they were not in any immediate danger of falling behind in the game. This being said it was not looking as though Everton were about to score anytime imminently either!

Everton took the lead early in the second half, with a goal that can be described as ‘basic’. The move started with Joel launching a long ball upfield, which was a ball that should have been dealt with by the two Leicester defenders, although their confusion allowed Mirallas to run onto the ball and into the Leicester box and his shot took a slight deflection off a Leicester defender before ending up in the bottom corner of the Leicester goal. While the goal may have been basic in its construction, Mirallas was composed in his finishing of the move. Everton now had a lead in the game which they could defend, and with their defence not having come under too much pressure it was a lead that they would have thought they could easily hold onto.

Shortly after the hour mark Leicester could have levelled the score when Ulloa had a header well saved by Joel which preserved the lead for Everton. Everton made a change when bringing on Tom Davies for Gareth Barry, and he brought more mobility and endeavour to the game for Everton. Everton could and probably should have scored a second in the 82nd minute, following a move which culminated in Lukaku sending over a low cross into the box which was met by the onrushing Idrissa Gueye, who only managed to send his effort high over the bar. This miss was not to prove costly however, and Everton managed to score a second and kill off the game shortly before full-time. Leicester had an attack which was broken up on the edge of the Everton box by Barkley, who then sent a long pass out to Lukaku who took the ball goalwards and was a little lucky in getting past his defender before calmly sending the ball past Schmeichel to kill off the game and give Everton a deserved three points.

The game was not the most enjoyable from a footballing point of view, although there were positives for Everton to take. Although he was not under lots of pressure in the Everton goal, Joel did command his area well and did come and claim the ball well when it was sent into the area, this relieved a lot of pressure and allowed his defence to organise themselves when needed. The defence looked more solid in their ‘loose back five’ formation; this does have to be tempered with the lack of real pressure from Leicester, although there was an improvement defensively in the match. Another positive was the appearance of Tom Davies,   he brought more energy and mobility to the side than Gareth Barry did and he was always looking for the ball and had the confidence to take the ball forwards and to put pressure upon the Leicester defenders. Davies can feel happy with his appearance and hopefully he will be making more appearances during the season as his introduction against Leicester certainly did his chances no harm!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here