Everton 4 City 2
Report by Kate Thompson
I am writing this report somewhat hampered by my inability to see a lot of the play, from a mixture of a seat right at the front, the fans in wheelchairs and a roving cameraman blocking my view for much of the time!
We were all hoping that Craig Shakespeare could continue the winning run and reach another milestone, but this was always going to be a tall order. Five of those who have played regularly were missing and three of them – Fuchs, Okazaki and Ndidi – were not even in the squad. It transpired later that Ndidi has a slight groin strain and the ever-dependable Andy King replaced him. Amartey and Chilwell played as full backs and Slimani had his first start for some time. The substitutes included Musa, Wasilewski and two forgotten men – Kapustka and Ulloa.
The game started at a blistering pace when Mirallas carved a path through the static City defence; when he was finally stopped illegally the referee allowed play to continue and Everton’s wonder kid, Tom Davies, scored the fastest goal I think I have ever seen, about 30 seconds.
Just when we thought we were in for a long – and very cold – afternoon, the game temporarily turned on its head. Gray hared down the left wing as he does so effectively, but this time he looked up and saw Slimani to his right totally unmarked. I also didn’t think Slimani could score with his feet, but he took his goal well.
Just before the ten minute mark Marc Albrighton took a free kick from the left of the six-yard box and it flew into the Everton net, surprising everyone in the ground. Three goals in less than ten minutes!
Unfortunately, this was as good as it got for City and it was no surprise when Everton equalised in the 23rd minute, from that man Lukaku, currently the league’s leading scorer. He is very strong and difficult to knock off the ball but sadly our central defenders went missing and he scored a bullet header that Schmeichel had no chance with. Just before half-time Everton took the lead when Jagielka scored with another header from a corner.
12 minutes into the second half and the game was all over. Lukaku was in the right place at the right time and a fortuitous bounce allowed him to drill the ball past the hapless Schmeichel for 4-2.
Then Everton shut up shop and City had no way back. Ulloa, coming on as a very late substitute for Albrighton in the 78th minute saw a good header hit Gueye in the face and rebound to safety. He had another header later which Robles saved.
There were some poor performances, particularly from the defenders. Only Ben Chilwell emerged with any credit; Amartey struggled at right back and Benalouane had his poorest game in this run of matches.
Much as I like Andy King he and Drinkwater were pretty ineffective although both worked as hard as ever. The one bright spark was Slimani, who had one of his best games; his reading of the game and positioning seemed to have improved.
So a bad day at the office, with the players brought in struggling to make an impact and certainly none of them look anywhere near likely to replace the senior players. Perhaps it was all a tactic to lull Atletico Madrid into a false sense of security! For the record, Mahrez replaced Gray and Musa replaced Vardy in the 61st minute; of the two Musa was the livelier and Mahrez continued to flatter to deceive.
Everton: Robles, Holgate, Pennington, Jagielka, Baines, Gana, Schneiderlin (Barry 73), Davies, Barkley, Lukaku, Mirallas Subs not used: Valencia, Stekelenburg, Calvert-Lewin, Lookman, Kenny, Williams
Leicester: Schmeichel, Amartey, Benalouane, Huth, Chilwell, Albrighton (Ulloa 78), King, Drinkwater, Gray (Mahrez 61), Slimani, Vardy (Musa 61). Subs not used: Kapustka, Simpson, Zieler, Wasilewski
Attendance: 39,573 Referee: Robert Madley