Pulis full of praise as Lukaku and Barkley pull West Brom apart
Considering the rest of Everton’s season was being rendered as pointless at the start of January, Ronald Koeman has done a fine job in making it seem like it might be relevant after all.
This was Everton’s sixth league victory of 2017, one that surely means they will finish no lower than seventh. Should they defeat relegation threatened Hull City at home next weekend, the discussion will be around whether next season will involve European football.
Romelu Lukaku’s form has ignited in that time, he is close to signing a new five-year contract and he scored again here, becoming the league’s joint top scorer with 19 goals — a record for Everton in the Premier League era.
He now has an overall total of 20 and that means he is also the first Everton player to reach that landmark in three successive years since the great Bob Latchford in the late seventies.
It is significant too that Tom Davies has emerged and Ross Barkley is flourishing. With Gareth Southgate watching here, Barkley was involved in Everton’s first and last goal while Davies must also surely be in the England manager’s thoughts for a call-up next week. There are few English midfielders that have his qualities: endurance, balance and passing range.
It was Barkley who impressed most on this occasion, though. Tony Pulis, the visiting manager, was very complimentary about his performance. “It was the best I’ve seen him play,” he said. “Barkley and Lukaku were very, very good. They were the difference.”
In truth, Everton were better all over the pitch suggesting there is a considerable gulf between the supposed seventh and eighth best teams in England. However, Everton still had to overcome all of the obstacles you would normally expect from a Pulis team to find their opening goal.
When the crowd inside Goodison Park believe West Brom are wasting time from throw-ins as early as the 37th minute, you know what type of game it has been. It was scoreless at that point but by the break Everton’s lead was defining. “Two goals in five minutes killed us,” Pulis admitted. “Mentally it affected the players.”
With Jonny Evans and Gareth McAuley’s attention being exclusively on the threat of Lukaku, it meant there was space for other Everton players to exploit. Lukaku had drifted wide when Everton’s opener came via a fierce shot from Barkley with Kevin Mirallas slotting home the rebound.
For Everton’s second goal, Lukaku received possession on the edge of the area, dragging McAuley and Evans away from their natural positions again. Morgan Schneiderlin raced forward from midfield, surprising every- one because it is not the type of thing he usually does and his finish was that of a centre forward high on confidence.
It was beginning to feel as though Pulis had forgotten about the option of substitutes by the time he decided to make changes with 15 minutes to go.
In the end, Everton were deserving of the margin of victory, sealed by Lukaku from Barkley’s cross.
“Everyone knows Ross had a difficult time earlier in the season but he is really improving,” Koeman concluded. “He is a fantastic player as he showed with his assist. Outstanding.”