Stoke’s Moses and Diouf push Everton closer towards the condemned land
Stoke 2 - 0 EvertonVictor Moses 32
Mame Diouf 84
Victor Moses was the hero as Stoke City moved comfortably past the 40 point safety threshold with a gritty victory over Everton, who are still 12 points short of that target and remain on the fringe of the relegation fight.
Stoke were worth their win, if only for the excellence of Moses’ first-half goal and general attacking play. The former Chelsea winger was one of the few players on the pitch willing to take on opponents, and on several occasions proved capable of beating them too.
Everton are going to have to fight harder than this if they are going to climb away from trouble. The visitors neither battled like a David Moyes team nor passed like a Roberto Martínez one, with the result that Stoke, who keep things relatively simple and know what they are good at, saw them off with surprisingly few alarms.
Aaron Lennon returned to the Everton starting line-up to face the team he rejected joining on loan in January and was booed from the outset, though for the most part he was as innocuous out wide as he proved to be in his latter seasons at Tottenham. Gareth Barry’s attempt to recover possession from Charlie Adam led to an early booking that will put him out for the next two matches, his 10th caution of the season triggering an automatic suspension.
There was little football to speak of in the first half. Everton hoofed more long balls in the direction of Romelu Lukaku than Stoke launched towards Peter Crouch, neither with any sign of success. Moses showed some neat touches for the home side but initially could not get into the game, while Everton had the most tenacious and hard-working midfielder in the splendidly consistent James McCarthy.
It took half an hour for the game to warm up, which it did when Tim Howard was called upon to make the first save of any note, punching clear when Moses sent in a shot from the edge of the area.
That woke the crowd up, as did an altercation on Stoke’s right touchline shortly afterwards when McCarthy and Steven Naismith ganged up on Phil Bardsley. That led indirectly to the first goal, when Bardsley sent a cross over from the same wing that Moses met with a stunning header.
With the Everton defence all too aware of the aerial threat posed by Crouch, Moses rose almost unchallenged to guide a header past Howard from just beyond the penalty spot. It was a goal of some quality, though sadly the only thing meriting such a description in a disjointed first period.
Everton kept trying to find Lukaku, though only Seamus Coleman came anywhere close with a break and a cross from the right on the stroke of the interval before the half ended, to the satisfaction of the home crowd, with Lennon wasting a decent shooting opportunity by firing straight at Asmir Begovic.
What few Everton shots there had been had come from much further out than that, a telling sign of their inability to break down Stoke’s defensive organisation.
Everton began the second half more promisingly, Lukaku finally managing to find space for a shot that took a slight deflection and trickled the wrong side of a post, but soon they were back to the long balls again and the Stoke defence was back in its comfort zone.
Arouna Koné came on and instantly tested Begovic with a shot, comfortably dealt with, though Everton goal attempts were sporadic and Stoke were looking livelier at the other end. While Mark Hughes kept making attacking substitutions but Stoke were simply defending in the closing stages, with even Moses getting back to help, but they found the energy to make a decisive breakaway six minutes from the end.
The substitute Mame Biram Diouf ran clear from the centre circle, found Marko Arnautovic overlapping on his right, and when his fellow substitute’s shot came back off the far post, Diouf was still onside for a simple tap-in. Everton could have few complaints. Of the 14 points that now separate these clubs, Martínez’s side have donated six to the Stoke survival fund.
Guardian
