Nothing ventured in this massive crunch game, a fixture Everton have won in four out of the last five, Moyes going tried and trusted, 4-5-1, despite its abject failure to provide the goals so far this season. Louis Saha up-front all on his lonesome, the vastly improved Yakubu overlooked for the third match on a row. Everything else pretty much as expected: the dreadful Arteta and the questionable Heitinga picked to start, with Rodwell and Bily on the bench.
No Gyan for Sunderland after their stunning 3-0 win at Champions Chelsea, but Darren Bent is back alongside Welbeck in a two-pronged attack. The visitors kicked off but an early Sunderland corner came to nothing. The game seemed to be going nowhere down the right when Jagielka switched play crossfield and suddenly Pienaar sets Baines free on the left, a fantastic cross, Cahill nails it... GOAL!
A series of Sunderland free-kicks were cleared with good defensive headers, the third driven low, Howard saving low to his left. It din't take long, though for Everton to descend into safety-first football, with passes back instead of forward runs players chosing to play the ball defensively or just hoof it forward aimlessly. Of course, they rare time they didn't, Arteta ruined a promising move with a dreadful pass that set up a Sunderland attack.
Richardson and Coleman tussled boisterously down the right, which got the crowd wound up even more when the ref failed to give the home side a free-kick. But most of the game was being played in the Everton half, the ball up in the air for puerile sessions of head-tennis. 23 mins and Zendon skipped past Pienaar and galloped in, sliding a great ball past Baines and Welbeck couldn't miss at the near post... and he didn't. 1-1.
Baines took Everton's first corner and it looked that Cahill had scored again but it was cleared by three players on the line. The clearance came back and a high ball was won off the keeper by Cahill, played back to Distin but his shot was horribly high
A Neville clip forward was brilliantly anticipated by Cahill and clipped over the advancing Gordon but Turner stopped it on the line, colliding heavily with the post in the process. Arteta than had a shot after a sequence of headers set him up but it was hopelessly high and wide.
The hour-mark came with each side looking to stretch the game after a period of Everton dominance, Sunderland winning a corner that was headed away well by Distin. A period of sustained pressure for Everton followed but in looking for the perfect set-up, it never happened. Jack Rodwell entered the five-minute pre-sub pre-brief instructional session from Moyes on the sidelines before he came on to replace Coleman of all people?!?
A nice move — almost a breakaway — followed but Arteta, well positioned to shoot, chose a clever sideways clip to Pienaar who was pushed too wide and the glorious chance had gone. Malbranque came on for Zendon as Sunderland broke after Arteta went to sleep, Bent' s shot out for the corner, from which a cross eventually came in off Richardson, who had picked the ball up wide when offside after taking the corner, that Welbeck headed well beyond Howard and into the far top corner.
Everton had paid the price twice-fold for not putting them to the sword after that nice early goal... so, so predictable. Now wait 5 mins and go 4-3-3...???
Rodwell and Bardsley squared off, Jack earning himself a silly yellow card. Everton pushed and probed, but looked as ever to overplay it, with Saha, Pienaar and Rodwell doing the "After you, Claude" walk it into the net routine. Sure enough, 82 mins and Moyes plays his masterstroke, Yakubu for Saha and Beckford for Heitinga. And incredibly, this time it worked! (Although neither of the new subs were involved.)
Arteta looked to have missed his opportunity to shoot, but fired in a weak shot that the keeper had well covered miraculous clipped off Bardsley's foot and into the opposite side of the net!
Both sides could have gone for the win after that, and Malbranque released Bent who fired into the side netting. But as 4 mins went up on the fourth official's board, Everton's ponderous multi-pronged attack only succeeded in getting in each other's way in the Sunderland area. At the other end, Welbeck came so close to securing the win for Sunderland and his hat-trick.
10 seconds left and an incredible piece of Route One/hoofball [delete as appropriate] lands perfectly for Beckford with just the keeper to beat... and he leathers it just over!!! Moyes collapses in despair on the sidelines. He was not alone. Once again, extremely frustrating stuff.
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