Everton 4 Leicester City 2
Everton: Davies (1'), R Lukaku (23', 57'), Jagielka (41')
Leciester: Slimani (4'), Albrighton (10')
Man of the Match: Romelu Lukaku (Everton)
So Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti do not have unlikely company in their elite band. Managers who have won the Uefa Champions League five times between them remain alone in tasting victory in each of their first six Premier League matches.
Yet the Champions League also accounted for the end of Craig Shakespeare’s perfect start. Prioritisation was a sign of progress, a weakened team overwhelmed by Everton’s attacking power but rendered possible by a revival that has made relegation a remote threat.
And so, for the first time since a defeat in Seville was followed by Claudio Ranieri’s sacking, Leicester City lost. Once again, a trip to Spain had consequences. Leicester face Atletico Madrid on Wednesday. They made five changes, and mirroring their fortunes under Ranieri in autumn, showed they do not possess the depth for squad rotation.
Romelu Lukaku highlighted his capacity to sniff out any sense of frailty with a double to take his tally to 10 goals in five Goodison Park games. He has propelled Everton to seven successive home league wins, which have yielded 26 goals.
Leicester briefly threatened to end that sequence, showing the spirit they have recaptured under Shakespeare, but shambolic defending offered more reminders of the defeats that led to Ranieri’s dismissal than the resistance that rendered them champions.
“We were done by two set plays, which was disappointing,” said Shakespeare, and an inability to defend them in the absence of the injured Wes Morgan may play into Atletico’s hands, even if it is safe to assume the match in the Vicente Calderon will not replicate the glorious mayhem of this first half. “It was like a basketball game,” Shakespeare said.
“Crazy start,” Everton manager Ronald Koeman said and, after Shakespeare jettisoned the blueprint of unchanged teams comprised of title winners, a reconfigured defence was breached after 31 seconds, Tom Davies equalling Chelsea’s Pedro with the quickest goal of the Premier League season.
Leicester responded in kind. Demarai Gray embarked upon a solo run. Islam Slimani was the beneficiary as he slid a shot under Joel Robles. When Marc Albrighton whipped in a free kick that left Robles flailing at thin air, they had scored twice despite only enjoying 18 per cent of possession.
That was not a failsafe formula; not against the predatory Lukaku. When he headed in Ross Barkley’s enticing cross – “a great assist,” Koeman said – he became the first player to score in eight consecutive games at Goodison Park since Fred Pickering in 1965.
He continues to etch his way into Everton history and into the minds of potential buyers.
“We will try to do everything to keep him here,” vowed Koeman and his double act with Barkley continues to concentrate minds at Goodison Park – “they played outstanding,” their manager added – not least because each is yet to sign a new deal. Koeman suggested Barkley’s situation is binary.
“We offer him a new contract and [there are] two possibilities: one, he signs and, if he doesn’t, we need to sell the player,” Koeman said. “It is simple.”
Everton may have to savour his alliance with Lukaku while they can. The striker increased his chances of winning the Golden Boot by powering in a 23rd goal of the season. Barkley should have scored himself but, when Kasper Schmeichel saved superbly, the excellent Mirallas took the resulting corner.
Phil Jagielka headed it in, a player who had gone 671 days without a Premier League goal scoring a second in the last week.
He is resurgent. Shakespeare was defiant. No longer sharing a mantle with two of the managerial greats, and having lost his impeccable record at the helm, he said: “We have been on a really good run. We have to go on another.”
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