A run in the Carling Cup? Surely not?!?!
Swansea (a), Fulham (a), Leeds (a), Chelsea (h), Brentford (a), Spurs (a), Blackburn (a) – those are the teams that have knocked us out of the League Cup competitions in the last few seasons.
I must admit, I was probably thinking that for the first time in a cup competition that it might be better for us to get a ‘big’ team in the Capital One Cup. One that we can have a go at. I know Chelsea knocked us out at home in 2011 but based on the last few weeks I’d fancy us to beat them again.
Instead we have Norwich which will be a difficult test. They’ll come to Goodison to ‘have a go’ and we’ll have to hope that Martinez doesn’t feel that he can put an experimental side out for this one. Play your best team. You never know, we might get a good draw in the next round and be close to a semi-final. Which we’ll lose to be fair, but I hope we give it a go.
Of course Martinez did ‘give it a go’ against a confident Reading side this week. He packed the team with wingers and went for the all-out attack option. Unfortunately for him this didn’t quite come off, and it was only the introduction of Gareth Barry at half time that brought a bit of control into our performance. That and the terrible goalkeeping from Al-Habsi of course.
Swansea away last weekend was a good result looking at the league table and all that, but it was a probably two points dropped really. Lukaku seems to have gone back to his form of late last season and is watching the ball bounce off him whilst missing half chances. We can only hope that he is saving these things up for the Derby in just over a week…
Wasn’t too much to say about this one apart from the fact that Brendan Galloway seems to be fitting in nicely and that Ross Barkley is having a flyer. I was one person who stated that we should probably cash in over the Summer but there are signs that he is actually starting to unveil some of that potential we know he has.
Oh, and Mirallas is an utter moron. I’ve no idea why he signed a new contract only for Martinez to give him 2 or 3 minutes here and there but to come on and swipe at the Swansea player as he did was stupid. He’d have played against Reading and put himself into the frame for West Brom and the Derby. The only thing we can all say is that no Everton supporter was really surprised he’d done it.
So, on to West Brom away on a Monday night. I must admit I’m not overly confident for this one purely as they seem to have a great defensive record this season (ignoring their reserves in the cup this week). Under the floodlights and with the crowd behind them they will be seen as favourites for this one and Pulis will have them pumped up for it. With their physical approach we’ll need to be sure that our defence is ready for it.
The good news though is that we’ve not lost a Monday night game since before 2011 (as far as my records go back). We’ve played West Brom twice on TV on Mondays and drawn them both.
Hopefully Stones will brush off the knock that he got in the league game against Swansea and Lukaku can rediscover some scoring form against his former club. I reckon yet another draw will be the likely result though.
Thoughts?
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