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David Moyes suffers miserable return to Everton with Sunderland defeat

Romelu Lukaku celebrates scoring for Everton.
Romelu Lukaku celebrates scoring for Everton. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

So much for mid-season breaks. Both clubs here on Saturday took the opportunity to get away recently, Everton for a spot of warm-weather training in Dubai and Sunderland for a perhaps ill-advised jolly to New York, yet neither of them looked fresher or more energised by the exercise.

Until Idrissa Gueye broke the grimmest of deadlocks with a quality strike five minutes from the interval the first half had been one of the stodgiest in memory. Everton just about shaded it but they were so unfocused in their attacks, so predictable going forward, that the crowd began to groan each time a move broke down on the edge of the Sunderland area.

As half time approached, the team at the bottom of the Premier League were beginning to be encouraged by how little Everton were hurting them, though just when they must have been thinking they might make it to the interval unscathed, two of the home side’s brighter performers combined to spoil David Moyes’ first return to Goodison since he found the Grim Reaper stalking him with Manchester United three years ago.

Ross Barkley was screaming for a ball through the middle but, when Tom Davies looked up from the centre circle, he picked out an even better run from Séamus Coleman. The ever-reliable full-back was behind the Sunderland backline in a flash and from his firmly squared ball into the area Gueye struck an unstoppable shot to beat Jordan Pickford from close to the penalty spot.

Gueye is not exactly known for his goalscoring – this was his first for Everton and first in the Premier League – but he could hardly have come up with a more emphatic finish and his contribution must have brightened hundreds of half-time conversations.

In fact Everton almost managed another in the five minutes that remained before the break, when the impressive Davies thumped a shot against Pickford’s left-hand upright from the edge of the area, though a second goal really would have been famine giving way to feast.

While Sunderland continued to play tidily after going a goal down, they also offered little in the way of a goal threat. Billy Jones mistimed a header at a corner to leave Joel Robles in the Everton goal with a simple save and, when Leighton Baines gave the ball away with a misplaced pass, Didier Ndong was far too easily dispossessed by Morgan Schneiderlin.

Everton’s Idrissa Gueye after his goal.
Everton’s Idrissa Gueye after his goal. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

It was fairly clear that another home goal would secure the points but also apparent that the Sunderland centre-half Lamine Koné was not allowing Romelu Lukaku his usual freedom, while Ademola Lookman was finding it so hard to make an impression he was withdrawn after an hour.

The Everton manager, Ronald Koeman, sent on Enner Valencia in an attempt to give the visitors’ defence more to worry about but, when he attempted to meet a Coleman cross he succeeded only in putting off the better placed Barkley.

After a period in which Koeman could be seen getting increasingly agitated on the sidelines as Sunderland inched closer to at least setting up a position for an equaliser, the crux of the game arrived around 10 minutes from the end. First Lukaku brought a fine save from Pickford with his first real effort of the afternoon, then Sunderland’s chance finally arrived when Adnan Januzaj found Jermain Defoe in the Everton box, only for the striker’s shot to bounce downwards from the crossbar and out off the line, Geoff Hurst-style.

The buzz of debate was still going round the stadium when Barkley sent a pass down the right wing for Lukaku to chase and, once he found himself up against Bryan Oviedo rather than Koné, the result was inevitable. If it was not one of Lukaku’s prettier goals it was at least the type of opportunity few other forwards would have been able to accept. Lukaku showed speed, strength and determination in homing in on goal, as well as the ability to force the ball past Pickford.

Both managers agreed that Defoe’s chance might have proved crucial. “We were a bit too comfortable at that point, we had dropped the intensity again,” Koeman said. “They only had one dangerous moment but we were lucky it was not 1-1.”

That is turning into the story of Sunderland’s season. If they are going to create only one chance per game, it is important it is taken and, though Defoe is usually reliable, he is not infallible.

“We were poor in the first half and I told the lads we needed to be a bit braver,” Moyes said. “I thought we were and I thought Jermain’s shot might have been in but obviously it wasn’t.

“This is a tough place to come and get a result but we still have 12 games and we are not that far away,” he added as Sunderland slipped to three points from safety. “I’m looking forward to a good run. I’m sure we have got one to come because a few other teams have had theirs.”