After thousands of Evertonians flocked to Lille midweek in what should be considered the biggest invasion of northern france since Operation Overlord, we return to reality in an away fixture at Turf Moor. Goals have been no problem for Everton this season, having scored in every single game this campaign, conceding goals has been the problem and it looked as if it’d be one of those days when Lukaku’s horrible mistake led to Burnley equalising early on. However Samuel Eto’o had other ideas, showing us all that he is still a world class striker at the tender age of 33.
Tim Howard – 5
Howard had 3 shots that he had to deal with, it seems lately he doesn’t have that much to do in the game but some how manages to concede. Granted there wasn’t a lot he could do about Danny Ings goal and is entirely Lukaku’s fault, but still… Is it too much too ask for a clean sheet?
Leighton Baines – 8
After one of his greatest performances in an Everton shirt last week against Villa, Leighton follows up with another outstanding effort. It seems when Baines is on form this season the whole team follows suit. Influencing the game dramatically as usual with the 3rd most touches on the pitch (94), the 3rd highest successful passes total (76) and the most accurate crosses on the pitch (3), of which one was a delightful cross for Everton’s opening goal just 3 minutes into the game. He also dribbled past 4 people and contributed defensively with 2 interceptions and 3 effective clearances. Unreal stat here for you: Leighton Baines now has 28 assists since the start of the 2010-11 season, this is 14 more assists than any other defender has managed in that time.
Antolin Alcaraz – 6
If you look at Antolin’s stats in this one you could say he was a contender for MOTM, with the most touches on the pitch (98), 5 tackles, 6 interceptions and 12 effective clearances. Those are better defensive statistics than any central defender has managed this season. But it’s not until you look closer and see that he had a measly 81.9% pass accuracy with a lot of his long balls going astray. He also allowed former blue Jutkiewicz to muscle him off the ball and was lucky not to be punished for it, on top of this Alcaraz misjudged an aerial ball in front of his own goal that almost resulted in Ings grabbing his second. That being said I believe he is improving with each game he starts, is it a coincidence that in both league matches he’s started this season we’ve scored 6 and conceded only one? I’ll leave you to decide.
Phil Jagielka – 6
Fairly solid from Jags with 1 tackle, 2 interceptions and 9 clearances as well as the most passes passes on the pitch (80). Phil also looked good in france midweek, keeping a clean sheet making it 1 goal conceded in the last 3 games. Our captain is beginning to show his consistency at centre back, can’t stress how essential this is to the team.
Seamus Coleman – 6
Coleman solid going forward once again causing all sorts of problems, creating 2 chances, dribbling past 2 people and getting a season high 92.5% pass accuracy from 39 passes. He’s always in the right positions to score at the moment, no goal this time out but perhaps he would of capitalised on Naismith’s looped header onto the bar in which he was probably in a better position.
Gareth Barry – 6
Involved in the build up of Everton’s first two goals he showed great passing ability once again with the highest pass accuracy on the pitch (92.4%) and the second most passes (79). He always plays the smart pass and quite often its effective in launching a threatening everton attack.
James McCarthy – 6
Both central midfielders were on form against Burnley, McCarthy doing the defensive work valiantly and was all over the park once again. He had 2 tackles, 2 interceptions, 1 blocked shot and 3 clearances. If you ask any of our four defenders they’ll probably tell you JMac is their favourite guy, the work he does goes under the radar but with attacking fullbacks its vital you have a player like McCarthy who cleans up everything in front of the centre backs.
Steven Naismith – 7
I thought Naismith had a productive afternoon at Turf Moor, he was involved in both of Everton’s first two goals. Little touches in and around the area from Naisy caused Burnley a serious problems, he doesn’t get the assist for Lukaku’s goal but he probably deserved it with a well timed ball to put Rom in behind the Burnley defense. He wasn’t afraid to shoot with 4 shots, he created 3 chances (most on the pitch) and had 2 successful dribbles.
Leon Osman – 5
Osman didn’t influence this game as much as he would have liked, giving the ball away 4 times (most on the pitch), as well as committing 2 fouls (most on the pitch). Obviously Leon isn’t used to playing out on the wing as much as this but he needs to show Roberto and the Everton fans something else if he wants to make the team sheet every week.
Samuel Eto’o – 8 (Man of the Match)
I don’t think I’m the only one in the Everton fanbase that still can’t believe Samuel Eto’o plays and is scoring goals for our club, I mean the man is a superstar! Attempting 5 shots, 4 on target and scoring 2 goals on Sunday in what could be considered his breakout game for the blues. He now has scored a goal every 73 minutes for Everton this season, the 4th highest minutes/goals ratio in the Premier League behind only Costa, Aguero and Lampard. Both the goals were exquisitely executed and he was inches away from netting a hat trick right at the death. Great performance from Eto’o, I can see him becoming a fan favourite at Goodison Park, I mean just look at his face:
Romelu Lukaku – 5
Huge mistake from Lukaku for Burnley’s goal, he’ll be having nightmares about that for the next week. Why he was dropping that deep baffles me considering he was meant to be leading the line for us. A lot of frustration from the Everton fans directed at Romelu and he would have a lower rating if it wasn’t for his goal and some good link up play around the box. Good movement for his goal allowed him to get into a goal scoring position, whether he scuffed it or not it doesn’t matter. His passion and desire cannot be questioned, getting the goal to make up for what he had done was so important to him, you could see it in his celebration. For the first goal he was involved in great link up play with Eto’o to allow Baines to get a relatively uncontested cross into the box. 3 shots, 1 on target with 1 chance created and 1 successful dribble. 2 goals in 2 league games for Rom.
Subs:
Ross Barkley – 6
Coming on for Lukaku, Ross showed some great ball movement and created 2 chances in only 25 minutes. He was also involved in the build up for the 3rd goal with a lovely little turn. Ross also dribbled past 2 people and had 1 shot off target.
Steven Pienaar – 6
Pienaar had only 7 touches on the ball given that he was only on the pitch for 9 minutes, yet he grabs one of the easiest “assists” you will see all season. Steven simply passed to Eto’o who took care of the rest. 100% pass accuracy proves a nice little cameo by the winger.
Overall Rating – 6.18
If you follow me on twitter (@EFCStats) you’ll be aware that I fully expect Everton to take maximum points out of the 5 fixtures between 18th Oct – 22nd Nov. Two down, three more to go with Swansea(H), Sunderland(A) and West Ham(H) to come. Juggling the league and Europe was always going to be difficult but we’re doing alright so far. It may have been a bumpy ride to get where we are now but who wouldn’t take 2 points off 5th place in the league and top of our group in Europa at this point.
Interesting Facts:
- 100 – Three goals at Turf Moor means we have now scored 100 goals under Roberto Martinez, for those interested Martinez has been in charge for only 57 games.
- 2 – Everton and Chelsea are the only 2 teams in the Premier League this season who have scored in every single league match.
- This is the first time Everton have won 2 successive league games since April 2014.