Romelu Lukaku, when in his rampaging pomp, is not known as The Beast for nothing. And at St Mary’s Stadium, against a strangely subdued Southampton, the Everton striker was at his bullish best.
This was particularly the case in the first half, when he plundered two goals. And he was not too bad in the second half, either. Yet inside that huge frame beats a heart of gold – and there was no greater illustration than when he struck a female fan with a powerful shot during the pre-match warm-up. The Belgium striker jumped straight into the crowd, gave her a hug and presented her with his shirt.
Then he went on to terrify Southampton.
“If that’s the case,” Roberto Martínez, the Everton manager, said, “then perhaps he’ll have to hit a woman before every game. I’ll make sure that happens in his finishing routine.”
Lukaku, scorer of 20 goals last season but with only four in his previous 23 league outings, soon showed that he was in the mood. He bulldozed past the Southampton full-back Cédric Soares only to be brought crashing to the ground by Matt Targett. It looked inside the area but the referee, Michael Oliver, ruled otherwise.
Lukaku was not to be denied, heading home an Arouna Koné cross in the 22nd minute and tucking in Ross Barkley’s exquisite pass on the stroke of half-time. “When Romelu gets in situations like that, he’s a pleasure to watch,” Martínez said.
“All in all, it was a very good day at the office. That’s a good way to put it. From the first second, we were outstanding in every department. And I don’t think that you will see many teams keep a clean sheet here. Sometimes, away scorelines don’t show the real truth, but this was the truth today. We took all our goals really well.
“We have a lot of young players in the team but their performance was one of incredible maturity.”
It had not started too promisingly for Everton, with Lukaku launching a potentially lethal missile and the visiting fans unfurling a banner suggesting that the chairman, Bill Kenwright, should resign because of a perceived lack of spending on new players this summer. But Southampton were meek hosts, allowing Barkley to dictate the midfield and Lukaku to run amok up front – supplied mostly by the non-stop Koné.
“What went wrong?” Ronald Koeman, the Southampton manager, said. “Too much, especially in that first half. We gave them too much space to play in and if you give that to Everton, you get difficulties. The whole team wasn’t aggressive enough. We won’t get points just because of what we did last season. This has to be a wake-up call.”
Southampton appeared better after the half-time break, when Koeman – still walking with the aid of crutches after achilles tendon surgery – brought on his new £5m signing Oriol Romeu. The former Chelsea and Barcelona midfielder made his mark immediately, a late challenge on James McCarthy earning him a booking.
Romeu at least added a touch of physicality that had been sorely missing. Graziano Pellè, scorer in his three previous matches this season, nodded wastefully over from a Steven Davis corner. Then the Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard had to make a spectacular save to tip over a thunderous 30-yard drive from Sadio Mané. Everton soaked it up, shrugged off the danger and, after intricate approach work, made the game safe in the 84th minute. The imperious Barkley cut in from the left, looked up and curled a delightful effort past the home keeper Maarten Stekelenburg. “When Ross is running with the ball, when he’s in that mode, there’s not many better than him,” Martínez said.
Southampton, after the heroics of a seventh-place finish last season and with a European campaign ahead, now have to digest a few unpalatable truths. They must regroup and prepare for the first leg of their Europa League play-off tie against Midtjylland at St Mary’s on Thursday.
Everton can be encouraged that Barkley and his young team-mates appear to possess a growing sense of unity. And it’s good that The Beast is back on top form.
