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Everton come from behind to beat West Brom

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Everton found themselves having to come from behind to claim all three points against West Brom, in a match that never quite reached the quality that both sides are capable of. The match started off slowly and quite disappointingly for Everton, and they found themselves a goal down not too long into the match. West Brom won a corner in the 9th minute which was met by McAuley who managed to head home quite comfortably to take the lead. There may have been some small claims for a foul when the corner was taken, but if they defended stronger at the corner then Everton would have dealt with the problems.

Everton were not playing well during the early part of the match and were seemingly a bit lost and unsure what to do. With something needing to be changed, Ronald Koeman showed that he is not afraid of making an early change to his team and he brought off McCarthy and replaced him with Lukaku. This change seemed to spark some signs of life into Everton, although there was not an immediate sign of any change in the direction of the game. While the improvement may have been slow there were still some signs that the momentum was starting to change. As the first half was drawing to a close Everton managed to level the scores following some neat play which ended with Mirallas being played in on goal and producing a confident finish to send the ball under the body of Foster and put Everton on the scoreboard.

The half ended with the scores level although it was not much to write home about; with too many Everton players being a little off their game in what had been a fairly uninspiring first half display.

West Brom could have taken the lead early in the second half after Everton failed to clear the ball properly only to see Fletcher fire in a low shot which was well saved by Stekelenburg. Everton took the lead in the 59th minute after Everton had a free kick which was met by Funes Mori who headed goalwards, Foster managed to turn the effort behind for a corner. Everton took the corner which led to Holgate knocking the ball back towards goal and then Gareth Barry heading the ball home from close range. Shortly after Everton scored Bolassie was brought on to replace Deulofeu to make his Everton debut.

Everton should have increased their lead in the 72nd minute after Bolassie sent in a cross which was met by Barkley who only managed to head the ball wide of the goal. West Brom had a couple of chances in the following five minutes or so but never troubled the Everton goal with any seriousness. Ashley Williams came on in the 80th minute to make his Everton debut after replacing Mirallas. During the closing minutes of the game Everton started to get a little sloppy in possession and gave the ball away too easily. West Brom had a couple of chances but once again never really troubled the Everton goal too much.

Just as the game was coming to a close Everton had a good chance to kill off the game after some clever play from Barkley who played in Bolassie, he then played the ball across for Lukaku who saw his shot well saved by Foster. Although it was a good save by Foster, Lukaku should have scored from the chance. Just as time was running out in injury time, Holgate conceded a free-kick after handling the ball. McClean took the free-kick only to see the ball come back off the wall. He then sent a cross into the box which Everton never cleared properly. The clearance fell to Ben Foster who had come up for the free-kick, he then fired his shot wide of the goal before the referee brought the game to an end.

The match was not the best game that will be played this season, although it did show the changes in the approach from Everton who did not keep hold of the ball just for the sake of it. They were willing to play the ball forward faster than previous seasons and in the main they were looking to move the ball forwards rather than sideways! The higher pressing game that Koeman looks to play will need the Everton players to improve their fitness from the quoted 70% they were at when the season began, but it is possible to notice signs of progress.

The man of the match award had a couple of contenders, Barry was always available in midfield, Mirallas had a good game and he improved once Lukaku came on. Lukaku had an impact on the game as his introduction seemed to spark some life into Everton, however the man of the match award goes to Mason Holgate, who looked comfortable in what was a slightly out of position start for him but he never looked in too much trouble defensively and was always willing to try and get forward to help out in attack.

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