Everton grabbed a well deserved win over an exceptionally poor Stoke City side at Goodison Park. With Robert Huth and Marko Arnautovic both out injured, in stepped Ousamma Assaidi and Mark Muniesa for the Potters, aiming to capitalise on last weekend’s victory over Sunderland. The Toffees meanwhile, were looking to get a home victory after their previous home game was a cracker of a Merseyside derby that finished 3-3.
In a first half void of any Stoke quality, it was Everton who did all of the work. Pushing at Stoke, a side who looked completely out of sorts, the Toffees amounted to no less than 8 corners in the first half alone. The only attempt that Stoke really had fell to Walters, who scuffed his shot straight to Tim Howard. On the stroke of half time, Everton found their breakthrough from Gerard Deulofeu. Some wonderful intricate one touch football lead to the striker being 1 on 1 with Asmir Begovic, and the Spaniard comfortably crashed the ball into the roof of the net.
The second half came, and it was much of the same. On the 49th minute, a cross from Deulofeu again came in from the left hand side, and it rattled through everybody and fell to Seamus Coleman on the penalty spot who mishit the ball, straight into the top corner.
The 3rd goal from a Stoke perspective was abysmal. Everton took a short corner to Oviedo about 30 yards out. The Costa Rican international came forward and smashed the ball into the bottom right corner of Begovic’s goal, making it look easy. Everton had managed to get 3-0 up after an hour’s play, and it was no less than they deserved.
Stoke’s misery was rounded off when Everton’s on-loan wonderkid Romelu Lukaku found the net on the 79th minute. The Chelsea striker ran through the two Stoke centre backs and slotted a low cross home from Bryan Oviedo. Lukaku’s goal was proof of the defensive frailties that Stoke had in this game. Mark Hughes has some serious work to do to get points out of the Cardiff game on Wednesday evening, while Roberto Martinez’ men are absolutely rocking, and are rightly in contention for a Europa League spot.
