Everton went past West Ham United at Goodison Park with a 2-0 with Romelu Lukaku netting the 50th Premier league goal for Everton. The scoreline definitely does not reveal the full story, which looks largely a one-sided game in the favour of Everton, The attacks and chances equally fell to both the teams but it was the forwards who made the difference. In this case, it was Romelu Lukaku. The win takes Everton to the 6th position with 18 points from 10 games.
The Belgian remained a thorn at the West Ham United’s defense throughout the game latching on to every chance thrown up front. One big influence was also Ross Barkley, who really brought the best out of his teammate. Lukaku paid back his fellow Englishman with an assist, who found the back of the net after a really good game. The strong build forward has already bagged 9 goals this season for Everton in a total of 13 appearances with 3 assists.
The strong build forward has already bagged 9 goals this season for Everton in a total of 13 appearances with 3 assists. It started with a hat-trick against Sunderland, a goal and an assist against Middlesbrough, one against Crystal Palace, one away at the brilliant Everton display against Manchester City, one assist against Burnley and today a goal and an assist against the Hammers.
Everton have been one of those teams, who have shown decent performances in the past few seasons staying in the top half of the table but never been able to break into the top 4 bracket, a feat that is no more rare with Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City achieving last season.
One common thing among Spurs and the Foxes achieving top 4 statuses was an all round performance of Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane. Everton seems to have found their allrounder finally in the Belgian. It was a difficult job holding on to the striker but Everton paid hefty fees to retain him.
A quick look at his performance today will help us track his influence on Everton’s game. He took 4 shots out of which 2 were on target and one found the net. He did not only wait up front but fell down providing 10 successful passes in the attacking third, creating 1 real chance that was netted by Barkley.
While these are general offensive attributes, one common complaint with Lukaku is his d=lack of defensive activity in the came, But, stats show he has been working on it. Against West Ham United, he recovered the ball 3 times, which gives a greater effect in counter attack for the attacking midfielders.
It was only for West Ham keeper Adrian who kept Lukaku out with some astonishing saves, which otherwise were clear goals. One such glimpse came when Lukaku brilliantly held the ball before feeding it to Cleverley, who failed to finish it.
If Everton manages to keep the Belgian fit, it might very well be the season for them to promote further up.
