Barkley ends traumatic week with dazzling display to help Everton climb to fifth
Everton have few equals. Eight successive league fixtures at Goodison Park have now ended in their favour, with Romelu Lukaku scoring in each of them, to accomplish a feat last achieved by the legendary Dixie Dean in 1934.
Lukaku’s 24th goal of the season climaxed a turbo-charged period for the hosts which the Burnley manager Sean Dyche conceded had taken the game away from his team.
“They had three minutes where they turned up the heat,” said Dyche, whose team were in the ascendancy before half-time. By tea-time though, Ronald Koeman’s men had usurped Barcelona, or anyone else for that matter across the top five European leagues, as the most potent team at home in 2017. Everton have not enjoyed a comparable run for 27 years. If only they could replicate that on their travels.
The afternoon had begun with the focus firmly upon Ross Barkley. The 23-year-old was punched in a Liverpool bar last weekend, in what his solicitor described as an “unprovoked attack” and was also the subject of an appalling article by Kelvin MacKenzie in The Sun on Friday that prompted Everton to follow Liverpool in banning the newspaper from “from all areas of its operation” yesterday morning.
Once the ground had marked the 28th anniversary of Hillsborough, Barkley, like many of this team-mates, was slow out of the traps but gradually became more influential, delivering a memorable performance.
Everton seized the initiative four minutes after the interval when Phil Jagielka prodded in his third goal in as many games, but what manager Ronald Koeman lamented as a “stupid” challenge from Joel Robles on Sam Vokes allowed the Welsh forward to restore parity from the penalty spot.
However, Barkley, who had earlier cleared Michael Keane’s goal-bound header off the line, then sparkled with a run and shot that saw the ball deflect in off both Keane and Ben Mee.
“What happened last week had a big impact for him,” Koeman said of midfielder Barkley.
“I think he was focused on football for the rest of the week. He was one of the team who started not well in the game and struggled to adapt to the way
Burnley played. They were the better team and it took us 30 minutes and after that I saw the Everton that I like to see.” Lukaku settled matters as Everton leapfrogged Arsenal and Manchester United to move up to fifth.
Everton (4-3-2-1) Robles 5; Holgate 7, Williams 7, Jagielka 6, Baines 7; Gueye 6 (Valencia 45), Schneiderlin 6, Davies 7; Mirallas 7 (Barry 76), Barkley 8 (Lookman 90); Lukaku 7. Subs Stekelenburg (g), Calvert-Lewin, Pennington, Kenny Booked Gueye, Barkley. Burnley (4-4-2) Heaton 7; Lowton 7, Keane 7, Mee 6, Ward 7; Boyd 6, Hendrick 6 (Westwood 86), Barton 7, Brady 6; Barnes 6 (Agyei 83) Vokes 6 (Gray 74). Subs Pope, Flanagan, Gray, Defour, Tarkowski.
Referee M Clattenburg (Northumberland).