Summary
There are some that are giving Everton’s late leveller as a Matthew Upson own goal, but I’m going to stick to my guns and say it was Lukaku’s goal. Regardless of whether it’s his name on the scoresheet, the Belgian was awful in front of goal and he should have had at least a hat-trick, as he did on Thursday in the Europa League.
At the back Howard was equally poor, and between the Lukaku and their American goalkeeper, they are the main reason Everton didn’t get the win today.
Whilst they didn’t have the better chances, Leicester will see this as a huge opportunity missed. But that’s what happens when you substitute Esteban Cambiasso.
Thanks for all your emails and tweets. It’s Southampton v Liverpool next up, which you can follow with Nick Ames here. Bye!
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Full-time: Everton 2-2 Leicester City
That’s it! We wanted a better second half, and we got one!
90+3 min: It’s Leicester who are pushing for a late winner, hitting Everton on the break and winning a succession of corners. With Howard doing more unconvincing flapping, Jagielka did particularly well to win a number of headers, and then clear off the line. Desperate stuff. What a finish!
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90+1 min: Great block by Upson! It’s Lukaku again causing havoc inside the box, planting a bullet header towards goal from a Mirallas corner. The ball would surely have gone in but for Upson getting his chest in the way. Leicester scramble it away.
90 min: Four minutes added on here. Goodison Park roar Everton forward.
Atsu latches onto a reverse ball from McCarthy, and worms himself some space, before delivering a telling cross to the near post. Lukaku gets across Upson and glances a fantastic header into the far corner. Heartbreak for Leicester!
GOAL! Everton 2-2 Leicester (Lukaku 87)
He’s done it!
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86 min: Leicester make their final change, and it’s another strange one: Cambiasso off (!) Andy King on.
85 min: Mirallas wastes no time at all in making his mark: sending an inswinging cross into the box. The ball is set back to Baines, who shoots across goal. The ball is heading wide, Lukaku sticks a foot out, he’s six yards out, but he again misses. That’s seven attempts on goal, none on target.
84 min: Everton make their final change: Naismith off, which is strange as he’s been their best player, Mirallas on.
82 min: Cambiasso seems to only be getting stronger as the game goes on, tackling Leicester out of trouble. He is such an efficient user of the ball, too, easily the best player on the pitch today and not just because of his goal.
80 min: Chance for Atsu! Naismith is pulling all the strings now, and Leicester are looking increasingly desperate. The Scot dinks a lovely ball over Morgan’s head. The pacy Atsu has the run on his markers, but the Ghanian is not able to get the ball under control. Instead it bounces awkwardly, and Konchesky is able to recover to toe it clear!
79 min: Atsu takes aim from range, trying to channel some of that AFCON spirit. His shot goes out for a throw-in.
78 min: Everything continues to come down the right for Everton. Lennon continues to be a threat against the sluggish Konchesky, but he can’t find the right cross. Not the first (or the last) time an MBMer will write that.
76 min: “Hi Michael,” writes Robin Hughes. “Haven’t been watching the football (just got back from White Hart Lane - we, Spurs, were awful), but I’m always up for a bit of Arthur Russell. Quite often have to stop myself spending money I don’t have on the recent vinyl re-issues. This is a cracker…”
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73 min: It’s fairly obvious now what Leicester’s tactics are now. Get men behind the ball, and hoof it long to Vardy to chase down lost causes.
71 min: Another terrible miss from Lukaku! This is getting embarrassing. Naismith is the latest Everton man to unlock the Leicester back three, chipping a first-time pass into Lukaku’s path. It’s unclear whether the Belgian is trying to shoot, or just control it, but with the goal at his mercy, he seems to trip over himself, with the ball trickling harmlessly wide.
Simpson lumps a hopeful cross into Everton’s box. Howard comes for it, but makes a complete hash of collecting/punching it. Instead, he get’s a feint touch to take the ball off Jagielka’s head. Vardy controls it, but he’s too wide to shoot, so cuts it back to the oncoming Cambiasso, who sweeps it into the unguarded net from eight yards!
GOAL! Everton 1-2 Leicester (Cambiasso 69)
Another shocker from Howard!
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65 min: Lukaku wastes another golden chance! It’s fantastic build-up play: Atsu and McCarthy combining, the latter deftly flicking the ball through to Lukaku. He’s clean through on goal, but cuts onto his weaker right foot and curls the ball over the bar! Martínez holds his head in his hands. Not the type of finishing we saw on Thursday.
What an impact from the bench! Vardy sears down the right flank with that frightening pace and fires a low cross across the six-yard box. Nugent is nowhere near it, but Howard fumbles, and the Leicester man tucks away the rebound. What a terrible bit of goalkeeping! Leicester fans go mad, some of them are visibly laughing at Howard. Oh dear. A lifeline for the bottom-placed team! You have to take your hat off to Pearson for making those changes, too.
GOAL! Everton 1-1 Leicester (Nugent 61)
Nugent scores with his first touch! (I think)
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60 min: Leicester are next to make their changes. Vardy on for Schlupp, Nugent on for Mahrez.
58 min: Whether it is the new-found confidence or the effect of Everton’s subs, but they look a completely different team. Gibson picks the ball up from Stones and pings a lovely 50-yard ball over Simpson’s head. Lennon breaks the offside trap and he’s through on goal! But no, it’s a poor first touch and Lennon is forced to check. The move fizzles out.
Lukaku does well to hold up the ball, shoulder-barging here and there just outside Leicester’s area. Lukaku slips the ball to Naismith, who cuts inside and mis-hits his shot towards goal. Konchesky and Morgan dive to block it but the ball bobbles over them and inside Schwarzer’s near post. The Australian was wrong-footed and Everton celebrate!
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Leicester City (Naismith 56)
A scuffed finish, but Everton will take that!
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54 min: A couple of Everton subs: Barkley is coming off for Darren Gibson. And Besic is off for Atsu.
Atsu hasn’t really got a lot of minutes since his loan move from Chelsea, but he was voted Player of the Tournament at the recent African Cup of Nations. He scored this beauty, too.
52 min: Lukaku is making himself more of a nuisance. Firstly, he flicks a clever backheel to release Naismith down the left, next a clever pass allows Barkley to get to the byline, but it is well cleared by Morgan.
50 min: The Yagielka pronounciation by the Sky commentary team is now getting very annoying. They still can’t say Martínez,” corrects Ana Prieto. “MartEEneth.”
48 min: On second viewing, Coleman managed to put Schlupp under a some pressure for that rebound, but the winger still should have scored. And you have to say that Howard save was poor, he should parry that wider.
47 min: Another golden chance for Schlupp! Wasted! The Ghanian squares the ball to James on the edge of Everton’s area, James strikes it goalwards and Howard can only parry it out to Schlupp. The goal is gaping, Howard is still lying on the ground helpless… and Schlupp puts it wide. What a miss.
Peeeep! Shockingly, there have been no substitutions. Here’s hoping everybody wakes up a bit.
Non-football-based half-time entertainment: the late great Arthur Russell.
Football-based half-time entertainment: Leighton Baines gives Everton fans a lift in his car.
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Half-time: Everton 0-0 Leicester
It is now over four hours since Everton last scored a home. The Baines nutmeg and Schlupp chance aside, that was a miserable half of football.
2 - Everton have scored just two goals in their last 591 minutes of Premier League action. Dour.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 22, 2015
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45+1 min: What a block by Stones! A hopeful cross is swung in by Simpson on Leicester’s right. Coleman wins the header but it falls to Mahrez 10 yards out. It is surely a goal if he gets it on target… but Stones flies out, and somehow manages to get something on it. Terry-esque that. The ball squirts behind, but there’s no time for the corner.
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45 min: One minute added on here.
Andrew McCarthy on the email. “Good to hear that Sky have developed some cultural awareness and are now referring to ‘Yagielka’. How modern.”
42 min: More Cruyff turns from Besic deep in his half. He gets away with it. I can’t work out whether I like him trying to play his way out of trouble. Admirable, but you feel Leicester’s best chance of scoring is capitalising on a mistake with their high pressing.
39 min: Neither goalkeeper has had a serious save to make yet. Leicester are growing into the game though, and their travelling support has even taken to shouting “Olé, olé” as they keep possession.
@michaelbutler18 I saw Rooney score that goal and, a generation earlier, I saw Tony Morley score from the same spot https://t.co/Lwv7NeXqtE.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) February 22, 2015
36 min: Schlupp does have a fierce shot on him though, and he let’s fly just inside the Everton box after more neat passing from Cambiasso and good hold up play from Kramaric. Over the bar.
33min: Cambiasso has been Leicester’s stand-out performer so far. He’s already won half-a-dozen loose balls that he arguably had no right to win. Plays with his head up, which is not the case for other members of the Leicester midfield, namely Schlupp.
30 min: Not sure that this five at the back is working for Leicester. Time and time again, their full-backs are being caught out, too high up the pitch, and the centre backs aren’t quick enough to make up the ground. Lennon squares the ball to Lukuku on the penalty spot, but his first touch is heavy, and Huth is able to make a challenge, with Barkley again firing over the bar as he picks up the second ball.
“I’m also worried About Back three,” confesses Stuart Graves. “All over 30 - and yet we have an England U-21 international in Liam Moore who has been forgotten. Personally, I’d take youth over experience.”
28 min: Kramaric gets his first sight of goal, cutting inside, dropping a shoulder, and curling a shot perhaps only one foot over Howard’s bar. Close! Goodison Park audibly breathes a sigh of relief.
26 min: All Everton’s good work is coming down their right. Konchesky is again nowhere to be seen, and Upson does a terrible job of covering as Coleman zooms past him. The Irishman gets to the byline does well to get his head up and cuts it back to Lukaku on the six-yard box, but the striker blazes it over with his weaker right foot. Not a £28m finish.
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24 min: Wes Morgan is given a yellow card for clattering Naismith. Seems a little harsh, that’s his first foul, by my reckoning and it was on the half-way line.
22 min: Robert Huth gives Lukaku a nudge under the high ball and is penalised. It’s a promising position for the free-kick, almost exactly from the spot that Wayne Rooney scored his first goal for Everton.
Ross Barkley is over it… but he curls it a good 10 yards over the bar. Poor.
20 min: Besic tries his luck from range, but Schwarzer saves comfortably. The Everton man was forced a little wide in truth. No clear-cut chances as yet.
17 min: Nigel Pearson is on the touchline today, not strangling anyone. Instead he’s using his hands to gesticulate widly to Cambiasso, wafting his hands as he beckons the Argentinian to stand tall. Wonder what Esteban makes of that.
“Interesting contrast provided by the two managers today, both of whom have found themselves under pressure this season,” emails Simon McMahon. “Martinez’s more measured approach seems to be paying off, as opposed to Pearson’s ‘I’m a little bit tasty’ demeanour, which has sometimes made him look a bit foolish in my opinion. Of course having better players helps too. Would be interested to hear what Leicester fans think.”
Leicester fans? The floor is yours.
15 min: Everton have settled into a nice rhythm, Leicester haven’t had a kick in about five minutes. With his back to goal, Lukaku shields the ball well from Upson inside the area, and flicks it off to the oncoming Naismith, but it’s just beyond the Scot. Had the backheel been right there, you’d have backed Naismith to score there.
14 min: Our first email of the day, courtesy of Matt Dony.
“I’ve always had a sort of inexplicable soft-spot for Leicester, and that only grew when they brought in Cambiasso. (Cambiasso! At Leicester! Still seems faintly ridiculous.) Then, though, they went and signed Bobby Huth. So I hope they go down. Harsh? Maybe. But Huth really, really is unlikeable.”
Any particular reason why? Other than that unpleasant social media business?
12 min: Baines just nutmegged Mahrez. What a guy.
11 min: Barkley breaks, and for a moment, it’s three on three as Everton counter-attack. With Konchesky again out of position, Lennon sprints at break-neck speed to the byline but his touch is heavy and his cross inaccurate, with Lukaku loitering unmarked at the back post.
10 min: It is very congested in the middle of the field. Leicester are also pressing the ball very high, trying to force a mistake.
8 min: Everton do have some frightening pace down their right-hand side: Lennon backed up by Coleman. It is the full-back which gets forward, getting beyond a napping Konchesky but his low cross is cleared by Upson inside his own six-yard box.
5 min: Besic is again careless, giving away a needless free-kick on the left touchline. He’s a talent, but a bit hot-headed. He’s also got his own name tattooed on his neck. Make of that what you will. The ball is taken short, and Mahrez’s cross is blocked. Pearson will be fuming at that, they’ve got a lot of big men in their starting XI. PUT IT IN THE MIXER.
3 min: Mahrez gets his first opportunity to run at Everton’s defence, drifting out onto his favoured right flank, but his ball inside is intercepted by Besic, who tries to be clever on the edge of his own penalty area, losing the ball. Schlupp pounces, playing a clever one-two and gets a shot off towards Everton’s near post. Saved by Howard.
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2 min: Leicester make a bright start to the game. Huth wins his first header against Lukaku and Upson lumps it long. Shock.
Peeeep peep! And we’re off!
The teams are out at Goodison Park. Everton in their traditional blue, Leicester changed in a royal red. Let’s do this!
It’s worth noting that Leicester are playing 5-4-1 today. Huth, Morgan and Upson as the centre-backs, which looks a very slow defence to me. Lukaku must be chomping at the bit.
“The formation affords us experience defensively and a bit more freedom for flair players. Can hopefully cause Everton problems,” says Nigel Pearson.
Everton are lined up in a 4-2-3-1, incidentally.
John Stones seems like a very bright young man. The 20-year-old is is speaking very articulately in an interview with Geoff Shreeves.
Jamie Carragher is suitably impressed. “He’s an outstanding young player. He was the best player on the pitch in the Merseyside derby. Great haircut, too, like a young Paul McCartney.”
The defender was sent off on Thursday against Young Boys, but his form recently has been excellent. Since he returned to Everton’s defence, Roberto Martinez’s team have conceded just once in their last four league games, and that was a fortunate deflected goal at Stamford Bridge.
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We did The Gallery recently on Nigel Pearson. Click here for more of this.
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In association with today’s match, here are the teams:
Everton: Howard, Coleman, Stones, Jagielka, Baines, Besic,
McCarthy, Lennon, Barkley, Naismith, Lukaku.
Subs: Robles, Gibson, Kone, Mirallas, Atsu, Garbutt, Alcaraz.
Leicester: Schwarzer, Morgan, Huth, Upson, Simpson, James,
Cambiasso, Konchesky, Schlupp, Mahrez, Kramaric.
Subs: Drinkwater, Vardy, King, Hamer, Ulloa, Wasilewski, Nugent.
Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)
Speaking of early-season optimism, how’s this for a bit of raucous concourse action. Everton fans at Leicester, HAVING IT LARGE.
Preamble
Rock bottom. Five points adrift. It’s not really turning out to be the season Leicester City fans hoped for is it? Having won the Championship at a canter last season, and having broken their club record fee on Leonardo Ulloa in the summer, there was a growing sense of optimism before their first game of the season against Everton in August that the club could make a real impression on the top flight. The game at the King Power Stadium finished 2-2, Ulloa scored, all was right with the world. Their only defeat in the opening five matches, which included a 5-3 win over Manchester United, was a 2-0 defeat away to Chelsea. Nigel Pearson’s blue and white army! (etc) What could go wrong?
Since then, quite a lot. Leicester haven’t won a single league point in 43 days. There are, however, shoots of promise. The club have a new record signing, Andrej Kramaric, who has looked lively since his January move from FC Rijeka, and whilst the team’s performances of late haven’t been rewarded with those oh-so-precious points, particularly in the 2-1 defeat against Arsenal, they look capable of staying up.
Everton looked mighty impressive in mid-week against Young Boys, winning 4-1 in Switzerland – their own record signing, Romelu Lukaku, bustling his way to a hat-trick. But the Liverpool-based club have won just two of their six matches following European competition this season, and with a Aiden McGeady (injured), Gareth Barry (suspended) and Tony Hibbert (I thought he had retired) all out, Leicester must smell blood.
Gary Lineker must be buzzing. Let’s hope you are too.
Kick off: 2.05pm GMT
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