The Scot feels his old Everton might conceivably have won the league had they only possessed a striker of Lukaku’s calibre so it was presumably with some trepidation that Moyes spotted the Belgium centre-forward hovering unmarked as Bolasie swung in a risky right-wing cross. “We kept the ball much more with good movements in attack and create goals”, the Dutchman continued. Many of those that did hang around offered up some boos to highlight the mood.
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Lukaku went into Monday’s encounter looking to end a Premier League drought that stretched all the way back to March, and he was asked explain his troubles in front of goal.
WhereStadium of Light, Sunderland, England. Set up by the former Bolasie forced Pickford into a diving save but, on a counterattack, Moyes’s players might have scored with Lamine Koné – an Everton target this summer – prompting a decent save from Stekelenburg after rising above Phil Jagielka at a corner.
One of the pair will be 30,000ft in the air while the match is being played, jetting off on his holidays with fingers crossed that Lukaku does the business. He had the fans serenading him multiple times during the game.
And Bradley was looking on from one of the hospitality boxes with his family when Sunderland nearly found an early opener through Jermain Defoe, the captain who had looked after him on the pitch.
Lukaku is closely marked by Sunderland’s Jack Rodwell. The Belgian’s wait for a goal continued after Jordan Pickford produced a brilliant save to divert Lukaku’s header over the crossbar.
“As soon as we upped the tempo we started scoring goals, Rom has come out of it with a hat-trick and there were some great performances all round”.
Everton boss Ronald Koeman replaced Barkley with Gerard Deulofeu at the break and the newcomer made an instant impact with a surging run which eventually led to Leighton Baines picking out Bolasie, who cut inside from the left to force a diving save from Pickford.
After Spurs, Sunderland are back in the capital next Wednesday for the EFL Cup third round clash with QPR, ahead of the visit of Crystal Palace to the Stadium of Light a week Saturday.
And with the 27-year-old back in the first-team fold – having played against Southampton and, ironically, Everton – he has now put pen to paper on a new contract extending his attachment to Sunderland by a further year. Moyes had to do something, so brought on Wahbi Khazri for Gooch.
After Adnan Januzaj’s effort ricocheted off Idrissa Gueye, the ball dropped over Defoe’s shoulder but he could only scoop it over the bar from 12 yards out.
Lukaku scored the first goal for Everton with a brilliant header in the 60 minute.
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It was to get worse, a lot worse. Lukaku completed his hat-trick in the 71 minute with a cool finish.
