“We will look forward to the draw and who we will face, but there’s still a long, long way to get into a position to think that you can win a trophy”.
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He added: “What have I learned about the players today?” Mino Raiola reportedly told a French radio station they had been given Martinez’s blessing for Lukaku to leave at the right price amid rumours of interest from Paris St Germain.
The fact they ran out 6-2 winners, with Arouna Kone scoring a hat-trick, was as much down to the Black Cats’ inability to close the game down as it was to Everton’s attacking invention and Barry says they can not always rely on goals to get them out of trouble.
But it is defensive, not offensive, reinforcements which are so badly, badly needed in January – and have been throughout these opening 11 games, which have seen Sunderland breached on a frightening 25 occasions.
And, to round off a fine performance, Kone headed home his third of the math when he met a stunning outside of the boot cross from Lukaku, but Sunderland were still forced to play a further 14 minutes before the final whistle put them out of their misery.
“Particularly when we got back to 2-2, nothing wrong with what we had been doing up to then, apart from we gave away a very soft first goal away”.
Kone has now scored five league goals in his last six starts to sit just one behind Romelu Lukaku, with whom he has struck up a profitable partnership.
Everton head into the game looking to bounce back from their 2-1 loss to Arsenal at The Emirates last weekend.
“Sunderland came here with a clear idea of being hard to break down and then try to hit us on the counter attack and I thought the way we coped with that was very impressive”. What to do, when and how.
“We got back to 2-2 but we just made it so easy for Everton to score three in seven minutes”.
But while the formation wasn’t necessarily to blame, was there enough for Allardyce to persist with it, or does he have to confine it to the recycle bin? It was Watmore who had the best chance after being played through on goal but his attempted chip was saved by Howard. The Black Cats have doubts over four key men – central defenders John O’Shea and Younes Kaboul, midfielder Ola Toivonen and striker Fabio Borini.
“It’s a bit of an ongoing problem with Cattermole”. We’re managing him through it, trying to find a cure.
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“Now it’s coming up to the global break, after that I hope we’ve completely recovered from the injuries”.
