Barkley enjoys home comfort as Everton leapfrog Man U
Benteke heads Palace closer to safety
LIVERPOOL, April 15, (AFP): Ross Barkley put an awkward few days behind him by starring in Everton’s 3-1 win at home to Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday.
Victory saw the Toffees leapfrog Manchester United into fifth place on goal difference.
But United, who, have three games in hand on Everton, will regain fifth spot if they avoid defeat against Premier League leaders Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Saturday’s match came just hours after Everton banned The Sun tabloid from their Goodison Park ground over an article about Barkley in which the England midfielder was compared to a “gorilla at the zoo”.
Everton captain Phil Jagielka gave the Toffees a 49th-minute lead when he scored his third goal in three games, the central defender’s header going in off the post before he thumped the ball over the line to make sure there was no doubt at all.
But it took Lancashire rivals Burnley just minutes to draw level at 1-1.
Everton goalkeeper Joel Robles needlessly brought down Sam Vokes as the forward headed away from goal to concede a clear penalty.
Vokes himself then scored from the ensuing spot-kick.
Everton, however, regained the lead in the 71st minute when Barkley’s shot took a huge deflection off Burnley defender Ben Mee for an own-goal.
Three minutes later, Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku scored in his ninth consecutive game at Goodison when he outmuscled Burnley defender Michael Keane before smashing a shot past goalkeeper Tom Heaton.
The last Everton player to achieve such a feat was Dixie Dean in 1934.
Earlier on Saturday, Everton said The Sun had been banned from both Goodison and their training ground, as well as “all areas of the club’s operation”.
The article in Britain’s best-selling newspaper concerned the 23-year-old Barkley getting into a fight in a nightclub in Everton’s home city of Liverpool.
Columnist Kelvin MacKenzie compared Barkley, who has a grandfather from Nigeria, to a “gorilla at the zoo” and said the only other people in Liverpool with his income were drug dealers.
The article was headlined “Here’s why they go ape at Ross” alongside pictures of Barkley and a gorilla.
“Whilst we will not dignify any journalist with a response to appalling and indefensible allegations, the newspaper has to know that any attack on this city, either against a much-respected community or individual, is not acceptable,” said Everton.
Meanwhile The Sun’s publisher News UK said in a statement that MacKenzie “had been suspended with immediate effect”.
MacKenzie said he had no idea of Barkley’s family background and added: “For the mayor of Liverpool and a handful of others to describe the article as racist is beyond parody.”
The Sun and MacKenzie are deeply unpopular in Liverpool.
MacKenzie was the paper’s editor in 1989 when it published allegations about the behaviour of fans of Liverpool, Everton’s local rivals, in the Hillsborough stadium disaster.
Saturday marked the 28th anniversary of the tragedy in which 96 Liverpool supporters died.
Liverpool banned The Sun from their Anfield stadium and their training ground in February this year over the paper’s 1989 Hillsborough coverage.
Christian Benteke’s 14th goal of the season completed Crystal Palace’s two-goal comeback to secure a point in a 2-2 home draw with Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday.
Leicester — who face Atletico Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday — took an early lead through Robert Huth with Jamie Vardy adding a second early in the second half at Selhurst Park.
But Yohan Cabaye kick-started the home side’s comeback with his second goal in two games before Benteke salvaged the point that moved Sam Allardyce’s side seven points clear of the bottom three.
Craig Shakespeare understandably had one eye on Tuesday’s meeting with the La Liga side but the Leicester manager resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes to the team that suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat in the first leg in Spain. Allardyce has attributed his side’s recent run of results to much improved defensive displays but would not have been happy when Palace fell behind to a routine long-throw routine after just six minutes.
Leicester left-back Christian Fuchs directed his throw from the left wing into the heart of the Palace area where Huth rose above Joel Ward to direct his header past keeper Wayne Hennessey from six yards.
The signs were not good for Palace with Leicester coming into the game backed by a record of having won every game they have scored first in, a record unmatched by any other Premier League side. But they should have drawn level in the 17th minute when Benteke was allowed to bring down a deep cross from Ward on his chest after pulling away from Danny Simpson.
The Belgian international was denied, however, when Kasper Schmeichel raced off his line to close down the angle and the striker saw his closerange shot deflect to safety off the legs of the Leicester keeper.
Yet for all their territorial advantage Palace struggled to make a significant impression on a Leicester defence who eased through the rest of the first half largely untroubled.
The visitors had offered few signs of adding to the score but the start of the first half mirrored that of the first and Shakespeare’s side doubled their lead after once again making the most of a Palace defensive lapse.
The threat appeared to lie at the other end of the pitch when Palace winger Andros Townsend swung in a corner, but a headed clearance landed at the feet of Riyad Mahrez, who set Vardy free deep into the Palace half with a long ball.
Then, after working his way into the box, the Leicester striker cut inside and placed a left-footed shot wide of Hennessey that the keeper could only parry into the net.
Palace struck back impressively and were back in the game inside two minutes.