Everton Regroup to Kill Off Fulham

Everton eventually rammed home their superiority over Fulham after Berbatov's penalty threatened to raise the spectre of more dropped points

Everton 4 - 1 Fulham

Even before this match, Everton's sequence of successive home League wins against Fulham was unmatched in English football but they extended it to 21 – 13 in the Premier League – with a win that was emphatic even if the scoreline was a touch flattering in the final reckoning.

As routine as three home points are against the Cottagers these days, I can't have been alone in feeling midway through the second half that the frustrating Everton to which are all so accustomed – you know, the one alluded to in the ToffeeWeb match preview that allows complacency to undermine the building of real momentum – was rearing its unwanted head.

Gerard Deulofeu, the emerging, now-not-so-secret weapon in Roberto Martinez's arsenal, had left the field on a stretcher, the team was seemingly hell-bent on committing footballing suicide in its own half with a slew of misplaced passes, Fulham had equalised thanks to a borderline penalty decision, and memories of the reverse the Blues suffered at Craven Cottage in the League Cup earlier this season started to surface.

What followed over the remaining quarter of the match was illustrative, therefore, of what this team has become under Martinez in terms of its resilience, its character and its ability to move up a gear in order to regain the initiative from a team growing into the contest. Not only did Everton win, they scored three more times to underscore both their attacking talents and their top-four ambitions.

The cliche about grinding out wins even when you're play badly has been a feature of the post-match dissection of the game but, taken as a whole, the Blues' performance was only poor relative to the lofty standards they have established under Martinez so far this season. Again they amassed 60% of the possession, forced a dozen corners and had 22 shots on goal – all signs of an excellent home performance in seasons gone by.

Save for a particularly sloppy 25-minute spell after half time when they could, with worse luck, have found themselves 2-1 down, this was an effective and dominant Everton display but one that could very easily have ended disappointingly had they not got their act together when they did. The crowd became very uneasy during that second half dip, though, a sign of just how important every game and every victory is at the moment.

Martinez had rewarded Deulofeu for his form against Stoke City and his contributions to the excellent results at Old Trafford and the Emirates with his second League start and dropped Kevin Mirallas to the bench, favouring Leon Osman in the centre to replace the suspended James McCarthy (although it seemed for long spells as though Barkley was playing deeper than Osman and closer to Gareth Barry).

Deulofeu would find this a less profitable afternoon than was the case against Stoke but he nevertheless played his part in another dominant Everton display in the first half. Fulham had started with the greater intent to keep the ball and pass it around but the Blues soon had their familiar vice grip on proceedings and, after Phil Jagielka had glanced a Steven Pienaar corner a yard wide, they took the lead after 17 minutes.

A move down the Blues' left saw Bryan Oviedo find Pienaar infield and he laid it on to Osman just outside the Fulham penalty area. With one neat feint to his left he had completely wrong-footed Jon-Arne Riise and had all the space he needed to curl a sublime left-foot effort into the left side of the goal and past Maarten Stekelenberg. The 32 year-old marking his 300th appearance with a goal.

After Deulofeu had flashed an inviting ball across the face of goal, the visitors' keeper had to be at his best six minutes later to prevent Romelu Lukaku from doubling the lead. Barry flicked on a corner from the right that came off the Belgian striker and was heading for the bottom corner when Stekelenberg turned it around the post superbly.

While not 100% convincing, the Blues remained dangerous and Coleman saw a low shot palmed aside by the goalkeeper and Osman volleyed wide after a Barkley's shot had been blocked following a lovely touch by Oviedo to create the chance.

Georgos Karagounis bobbled a rare chance for Fulham wide 10 minutes before half time when he might have done better and Osman thought he had scored when yet another corner came through to him six yards from goal but his goalbound effort took a crucial deflection off his marker's out-stretched leg and flew narrowly over.

Having escaped to the interval just a goal down, Rene Meulensteen had clearly instructed his players to come out from half time and have a go, which they did more or less from the first whistle. In combination with Everton's nonchalance bleeding into complacency and sudden profligacy in possession, it made for a very different contest and Tim Howard, largely a spectator in the first half, was called into his first save inside three minutes of the restart.

The American denied Scott Parker with a fine save after an awful mix-up between Osman and Phil Jagielka and then got arguably the game's biggest let-off a minute later when he spilled Steve Sidwell's shot straight into the path of Alex Kacaniklic who scooped over an open goal when it was surely easier to score.

With Goodson becoming increasingly restless, Sascha Riether then picked Dimitar Berbatov out at the back post with a deep cross that the Bulgarian could only steer into the side-netting. And as if Deulofeu's departure with what looked like a badly-torn hamstring a little past the hour mark wasn't bad enough, Fulham were awarded a penalty in the 66th minute when Kacaniklic went down under Barry's somewhat awkward challenge and referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot after a moment's pause for consideration. Rather than any real intent from the Everton man, the Swede appeared to have jumped into Barry's challenge but it was one of those you'd have felt was nailed on if the boot were on the other foot. Regardless, Berbatov assumed the honours for the spot kick, did his usual stutter-step run-up and rolled the ball into the corner having sent Howard the other way.

Credit to Everton, they regrouped and kicked on, re-taking the lead in the 73rd minute with a wonderfully-worked goal that deserved to effectively win the game. Pienaar's world-class dummy-and-roll off his marker allowed him to collect a one-two pass with Lukaku behind the Fulham defence and though Stekelenberg got a hand to his centre, he merely diverted it into the path of the incoming Coleman who side-footed into the empty net.

11 minutes after that it was 3-1 and game over when Sylvain Distin's downward header off a corner from the right seemed to come off Lukaku's arm but Stekelenberg parried the ball on his goalline, only for Barry to nod the ball home from a yard out as it rebounded up off the keeper's gloves.

Icing on the cake would come from Mirallas in injury time when he was sent clear down the channel by Osman and he single-mindedly drove towards the Fulham area and whipped a low shot goalwards that bounced in front of the keeper and flew into the goal off his hands.

So a second-successive home game where Everton scored four goals and a result that keeps up their momentum in the chase for a Champions League slot. Having done the hard work against Manchester United and Arsenal and collected four priceless away points, this was one of those games that the Blues simply had to win in order to press those claims for a top-four finish. That they did so, despite needing to shake off some schoolboy stuff in the first part of the second half, not helped by the absence of McCarthy and a sub-par display by Barry, lends more credence to the belief that this team could have the discipline, the drive and the ability to last the distance this season.

Lack of depth in the squad could yet hinder those hopes, though, and the loss of Deulofeu and his game-changing impact is a real blow. Martinez has suggested that he is looking to strengthen in January – it's unclear, though, how much money he will have at his disposal and just how much the Board are prepared to back his charge for the top four – and if the Spanish teenager is sidelined for the next couple of months, as seems to be expected, then a threatening wide man should be high on his shopping list.

Thankfully, though, Mirallas remains a potent force himself when he is in the mood. He hasn't found the requisite consistency to his game yet under Martinez but he has added greater industry to his game that makes him a more rounded member of the first team and less of a luxury player. As if to underline the point, he had positioned himself superbly for a cut-back by Pienaar for the second goal that, had he received it, would almost certainly have seen him score instead of Coleman and he crashed home his second goal of the season to round off the win.

So to Swansea, another a happier hunting ground for the Blues than the venues of their last two away games and another opportunity to capitalise on this favourable part of the fixture schedule. There is no question that by the end of the year we'll have a clearer picture of just what this team is capable of achieving this season but so far under Señor Martinez, so very good.

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