Typical – I have to miss a game and it turns out to be our best performance of the season…
Of course the thing that softened the blow was that I was with a group of friends that included an Aston Villa fan who has seemingly accepted their inevitable relegation come May. From what I’ve heard and seen it was one-way traffic against a team that came to Goodison to park the bus and battle towards a 0-0 draw.
In the last couple of years one of my complaints against our team has been that when we’ve played teams that come to simply defend we’ve not had the flair to get through them. That changed on Saturday.
At the moment our front four of Deulofeu, Barkley, Kone and the wonderful Lukaku is giving defences all sorts of issues. On more than one occasion a deft flick or one-two between players that are starting to trust each other and have some fun gave Everton a chance to extend the lead.
Poor old Villa were destroyed on their left as Coleman and Deulofeu attacked Kieran Richardson again and again. Can’t believe he’s still a Premier League player to be fair… In the meantime Lukaku broke another record, scoring his 50th goal in the Premier League – only the fifth player to do so in the PL before the age of 23.
He has also come very close to Gary Lineker’s record for the fastest 10-goal haul in a season. Lineker did it in 14 games in 1985. 30 years on and Big Rom has done it in 16. Not bad.
I must admit that in the past I’ve criticised the massive Belgian for being lazy/not holding the ball up well, but when Everton play to their strengths and play the ball in front of him he’s difficult for anyone to handle.
Villa were (apparently) awful against a team that seem to be enjoying playing together. I guess the next worry is that teams come sniffing around the club come January, but if we can get a run together of decent results we could even be in with a shout of the top 4 as the Winter sets in.
Our next three games could well define our season. Away games at Bournemouth and Norwich – games we should be winning – sandwich a home game against Crystal Palace who have beaten us 3-2 two years running at Goodison. The only good thing is that we may now have the pace and players in form to counteract their style. Oh, and we have a great record in Monday night football games too.
Yes, I’m clutching at straws.
So lets hope that our decent form continues and that we can survive the barrage that Bournemouth will no doubt throw at us next week.
One last thing – the world of football obviously came together after the Paris attacks last week. Did any teams with a French player taking part actually win or do well? Seems that the situation drained quite a lot from the players involved. Let’s hope that they can bounce back from what was a terrible week.