Everton 2-0 Sunderland
Everton: Gueye (40’), Lukaku (80’)
Perhaps defeats have become so frequent and so predictable that David Moyes is inured to them now. A manager who hates losing was oddly upbeat after a latest setback. Or perhaps it was because he managed to return to Goodison Park without being stalked by anyone dressed as the Grim Reaper.
Sunderland’s fortunes are grim indeed, but Moyes’s personal plight is less severe than on his previous homecoming. He was sacked by Manchester United within 48 hours then, his fate predicted in a stunt engineered by a bookmaker. In that respect, history should not repeat itself. In another, it already has, and not just because this also finished 2-0.
Moyes lost to Everton, as he has done on each of his four reunions since his 2013 departure. It was ostensibly for better things, but with the Championship beckoning for Sunderland, it scarcely feels that way.
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Excellent an Everton manager as he was, his old employers are not missing him. Signings made by his successors scored, Idrissa Gueye and Romelu Lukaku’s goals meaning the Merseysiders possess the Premier League’s best record in 2017. Sunderland may not end the calendar year in the division.
Moyes, uncharacteristically, plucked the positives.
“We have got 12 games to go,” he said. “I am looking forward to a good run. I am sure we have got one to come.”
Yet seconds earlier, he had admitted he was relieved only to be 1-0 down after a “really poor” first-half performance.
He could reflect on a pivotal two-minute period when Jermain Defoe was finally supplied with a chance and illustrated his explosiveness. But his rasping shot rebounded off the bar and came off the line.
“But for technology, it may have been given as a goal,” said Moyes, rueing modernity. “One lucky moment,” said Ronald Koeman, and Everton escaped to make the most of their reprieve.
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Lukaku ran from the half-way line to score their second goal, his eighth in five home games, a joint club record 60th in the Premier League for Everton and a 17th this season. While he shares the lead in the race for the Golden Boot, Sunderland are marooned alone at the foot of the table.
A mid-season break in New York did not bring a new beginning. They carried on losing. They were organised and competitive but largely unimaginative and impotent.
“I wanted to come here and frustrate the crowd,” Moyes said.
They were brought to life when Gueye struck. It was a goal where the contribution of one of Moyes’s best buys was sandwiched by those of two Koeman has introduced. Tom Davies, given his debut by the Dutchman, spread play with precocious vision. Seamus Coleman, a £60,000 buy by the Scot, centred and the summer arrival Gueye finished with a flourish. It showed Davies’s passing range. He also illustrated his shooting ability, clipping the outside of the post with a crisp strike from 20 yards. He has a spark, a willingness to try things and a capacity to make them happen.
Everton have a fine balance in midfield. Morgan Schneiderlin’s arrival has allowed Gueye to get forward more. The Senegalese had almost opened the scoring 19 minutes before his belated first Premier League goal.
“A great finish,” said Koeman. “I hope it will not be the last.”
The involvement of newcomers was telling. Moyes delivered 11 years of sustainability and stability, budget-friendly top-eight finishes secured by bargains. But they feel distant days now, and not merely because only three of the Scot’s former charges started for Everton. The Merseysiders have moved on.
Now Sunderland are revisiting his old club’s past. Such is the scale of the reunion that the Everton Former Players’ Foundation may need a satellite office in Sunderland. It lent a sense of desperation, of rounding up cast-offs. Of the six Everton alumni at the Stadium of Light, only Bryan Oviedo and Darron Gibson played. Both were booked. It was not the sort of impact Sunderland required.
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