Ronald Koeman had called it before the game, writing in his programme notes that “Mark [Hughes] always competed on the pitch, never made it easy for the opposition to play and his teams have always been a reflection of the hard work and high intensity he believes in”. His Everton team had to compete in a similar vein and compete the players did, gaining reward for their resilience, team ethic and prodigious effort with a goal from a Leighton Baines penalty which may have gone down as an own goal by the Stoke goalkeeper, Shay Given, but owed plenty to Baines’s renowned marksmanship from 12 yards.
Phil Bardsley fouled Ashley Williams inside the area from a Kevin Mirallas corner kick and Baines directed his shot low and hard from the spot to Given’s left. The former Republic of Ireland international summoned all of his guile and legion agility to get down to parry the ball onto the post, only for it to rebound against him and into the corner of the net. While the luck of the Irish deserted Given in that moment, the difference applied by this moment on the result of the game was hardly an injustice. Everton had been on top and, while Stoke never allowed for comfort to set in before the final whistle, victory was deserved.
Two wins and a draw from the opening three games of the Premier League represents a highly satisfactory start for Koeman and his team heading into the international break.
With Gareth Barry and Idrissa Gana Gueye patrolling reassuringly in central midfield, Ross Barkley found space to set up a couple of early attacks. Yannick Bolaise overhit a cross from the right with the first but the second culminated more productively in a shot from Mirallas which Given gathered comfortably, diving low to his left.
Stoke had triumphed on their previous two visits to Goodison, prevailing by the odd goal in a seven-goal thriller just after Christmas last season, and they were quick to respond with a foreboding threat. Mason Holgate, whose fledgling career has begun with calm awareness and promise, dealt consummately with a cross from the right from Bardsley, intervening with his head on the edge of the six-yard box just as Peter Crouch was lining up an overhead kick and replicated the move a little later as Stoke continued to show strength and purpose in their forward momentum.
But the high-intensity, high-pressing game that Ronald Koeman has called for from the outset became the dominant theme as the game moved deeper into the first half. Romelu Lukaku, making his first Premier League start of the season, led the line with a mounting menace and his fellow Belgian international, Kevin Mirallas, energetically probed the Stoke defence. His cross from the left presented the first gilt-edged opportunity of the game to Williams who must have felt, as the ball projected off his head at the back post, that he was about to secure his first goal in his first Premier League start for his new club. Alas, Crouch was on hand to clear off the line.
Mirallas continued to intervene with a clear and present danger, culminating in an overhead kick just prior to half-time that had power but not the precision to require further attention from Given. The veteran Irishman had been troubled more when Holgate, once more combining penetrative surges into the opposition penalty area with his defensive duties, fired one of several potent crosses into the box for Barkley to head goalwards, only for Ryan Shawcross’s timely intervening header to be gathered by Given. He was positioned well also to parry away for a corner a stinging shot by Mirallas from just inside the penalty area, with Barkley again instigating the opportunity. Indeed, the creative influence of Barkley underpinned a first half which for Everton only lacked a breakthrough, something which another sell-out Goodison crowd showed appreciation of at the half-time interval.
Only two minutes into the second half, the Blues looked like achieving just that when Lukaku played in Barkley, who held off both Shawcross and Joe Allen before pulling his left-footed strike marginally wide of Given’s far post. The pressure on the Stoke goal was proving incessant. Something had to give. It almost did when Barkley flicked the ball up for Holgate to head on and Lukaku rounded Given before Shawcross blocked at close range for a corner.
From the resultant corner, Bardsley fouled Williams and referee Michael Oliver pointed immediately to the spot. Baines may not have been credited officially with the goal but his strike was well-placed and only as noted a shot-stopper as Given could have so valiantly attempted to stymie his effort, getting a firm left glove onto the ball and redirecting it onto the post only for the rebound to strike him from behind and go in.
Stoke were not done, however. Maarten Stekelenburg was called into action once more when Marko Arnautovic shot from close range, with the Dutchman parrying his effort onto the bar and Baines clearing heroically as Allen prepared to pounce off his shoulder. But the Blues maintained the kind of team ethic which Koeman is so determined to make a constant characteristic of his team. Bolasie played in Barkley whose shot was saved by Given before Barry rolled the ball for Bolasie on the edge of the area, the former Crystal Palace man measuring his shot but firing narrowly wide.
Arnautovic almost set up Stoke substitute Jonathan Walters for an equaliser but, in the end, Williams and Phil Jagielka’s defending symbolised the character of the Everton team and Stoke remained repelled.
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