VIEW FROM THE BLUE

Black Cats Declawed Once Again

By Lyndon Lloyd   ::  09/04/2012

Everton 4-0 Sunderland

There may be plenty to the old adage that the form book goes out the window for Merseyside derbies but there is something to be said for the confidence gleaned from a rich vein of form and Everton are in the midsts of a pleasing run of results that can only help as they prepare for Saturday's showdown with Liverpool at Wembley.

True to form established in recent years, Everton's form has taken off since the turn of the year and even though David Moyes made a number of expected changes, the Blues still dominated and then summarily put to the sword a Sunderland side that is by now surely sick of the sight of them. Goodison's faithful was treated to the biggest win of the season so far and in-form striker, Nikica Jelavic, wasn't even in the squad; the Croatian watched from the stands alongside attacking partner, Tim Cahill, as their teammates dismantled the Black Cats' with a four-goal blast in the second half.

With his side playing their second game in three days, Moyes chose to make a number of personnel changes, handing starts to James McFadden, Denis Stracqualursi and Magaye Gueye, moving Phil Neville to left back, partnering Phil Jagielka with John Heitinga and resting the aforementioned forwards as well as Leighton Baines, Sylvain Distin and Darron Gibson. Leon Osman returned after missing the draw at Norwich with a knock, partnering Marouane Fellaini in central midfield now liberated by the yellow card amnesty.

Pleasingly, the standard of pass-and-move football that has been a hallmark of the Blues' last five games, was barely diminished by the much-changed starting XI and the home side established a casual dominance in the first half. It yielded few clear-cut chances but with Martin O'Neill's side curiously subdued, it allowed Everton to control the game without overly exerting themselves.

Indeed, Sunderland's insipid display must have infuriated his manager. Whether it was revenge for the cup replay which Everton navigated so masterfully to end the Wearsiders' Wembley dreams or the knowledge that were coming up against a below-strength team with one eye on a semi-final date this coming weekend, the Black Cats had plenty of incentive to be "up" for this Easter Monday match-up but were largely tame throughout. No sign, therefore, of the team that romped to a 3-1 lead at the Etihad Stadium in their last away game and held on for a 3-3 draw against expensively-assembled Manchester City.

Tim Howard had as easy a time of things in the first half as he did against West Bromwich Albion here nine days previously and only a spectacular overhead kick by Stephane Sessegnon gave him cause for alarm before the break, the Benin international's effort flying a couple of yards wide.

By that point, Everton had fashioned a few half chances of their own. Pienaar combined nicely with Gueye but skied a left-foot shot when the Frenchman returned the ball to him with a square pass inside the box and Fellaini made a mess of a first-time effort at the end of a patient passing move orchestrated nicely by Osman who delivered the final ball that the Belgian sliced wide.

Only McFadden managed to test Simon Mignolet in the visitors' goal before the break when he faked to shoot with his right foot, cut the ball back into his left and fired low forcing the 'keeper into a low save.

Having coasted through the first half, Everton had energy in reserve for the second and they started on the front foot, with a succession of corners, two won by the tigerish Tony Hibbert and one of those led to the opening goal. A defender's header dropped to Pienaar on the right side of the area and when his header found Jagielka, he laid it back to Osman to drive an accurate shot goalwards from 18 yards that Mignolet could only parry to his right.

Luckily Gueye came steaming in on the follow-up to smash the ball home from the angle and record his first goal in Everton Blue. The overdue milestone clearly meant a lot to him and it was rich reward for his quiet emergence as a viable first-teamer in the last few weeks.

After a brief injury scare for Heitinga who went down clutching his ankle in a fair amount of distress after 52 minutes, Sunderland were briefly roused from their torpor and the match momentarily threatened to pivot on one moment of disarray in the home defence with a quarter of an hour to go. Heitinga ill-advisedly left a deep cross from the left that was scooped up off the byline by a Sunderland man to the opposite post but Jagielka scrambled the loose ball away from a vulnerable spot in front of his goal before anyone could pounce on it.

A minute later, Everton doubled their lead. Royston Drenthe, who had replaced the eager but ultimately ineffective McFadden 10 minutes earlier, cut in swiftly from the right and rolled a square pass along the 18-yard box to Gueye who tapped it to Pienaar and the South African was able to pick his spot with a sweeping right-footer that curled around the fingertips of Mignolet and inside the far post.

A further minute later, Osman collected Gueye's dinked ball forward and advanced to almost the same spot from where Pienaar had scored and emulated his teammate with aplomb, spinning a perfectly-struck shot in off the same far post to make it 3-0.

And a third goal in five minutes quickly followed. Victor Anichebe had only been on the pitch three minutes after relieving Fellaini before he profited from great work by Pienaar by the byline that saw him keep the ball despite stumbling under a defender's challenge and then skip into the box and cut it back to the danger zone.

Anichebe mis-kicked initially but had the awareness to swivel onto the bouncing loose ball and his half-volleyed shot deflected off Jack Colback's chest and past the wrong-footed goalkeeper to make it four.

Game, set and match Everton and a fourth win in five games with 10 goals scored, four clean sheets and just two goals conceded. You couldn't ask for much better form at this stage of the season and going into an all-important Wembley date in five days' time. With hopefully no longering knocks and his first-choice starting XI refreshed, the Blues will be well prepared for what will be a nailbiting clash with the neighbours in London on Saturday.

Player Ratiings: Howard 6, Hibbert 8, Jagielka 7, Heitinga 7, Neville 7 (Coleman -), Fellaini 8 (Anichebe 7), Osman 8, Gueye 8, Pienaar 8, McFadden 6 (Drenthe 7), Stracqualursi 7 (just; for effort, really). Man of the match was a toss-up between Pienaar and Osman.

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