A win! An actual win! In a game against a team that had been in form! How very un-Everton!Going into a match against Palace was always going to be tricky – they were becoming a mid-Nineties Sheffield Wednesday-type team that beat us every time despite the fact they really, really shouldn’t. After a 3-2 defeat at Goodison late last year and the fact they had won 4 on the trot under Pardew; no-one was confident for this one.
McGeady returned for this one after being banned for the goalless draw against West Brom but the rest of the team continued as was – a settled back four being a real bonus for the Toffees these days.
The display in this match from Stones, Jagielka and Coleman was superb, with each of them throwing themselves into challenges every few minutes to deny Palace and protect the lucky goal (yes – a lucky goals!) from Lukaku in the second minute. A cross from Naismith that probably would have been far ahead of the Belgian was diverted onto him and into the net by the Palace keeper. A lovely bundled winner. Nice.
The rest of the game was really about Everton keeping possession and carving out the odd chance with Palace chipping away without success. The closest they came was just after we scored when Jagielka somehow hooked away a chance off the line by the finest of margins.
I guess the win (our first in 13!!) takes the pressure off Martinez ahead of any panic buys tomorrow. You could see him having to bring a big name (probably past-it) player in just to appease the fans ahead of tough games against Liverpool, Chelsea and then Young Boys. Not sure he’ll feel he has to now, and with two clean sheets in a row ahead of Tim Howard being fit I feel he might stick with what he has.
Players we have been linked with such as Berbatov or Lennon from Spurs shows the kind of player we are being linked with. Premier League experience but generally they have seen better days. It’d be great to be linked with someone up and coming with a great reputation but you get the feeling that Martinez blew all his transfer cash on Lukaku.
Oh, and surely Christian Atsu will be like a new signing when he comes back from the African Nations, right? Right? Anyone?