The Black Cats secured their first Premier League victory of the season at the 10th time of asking last Sunday, as arch-rivals Newcastle left the Stadium of Light on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline.
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What you don’t normally associate with Everton, though, are Arouna Kona goals.
Sunderland had pulled level at 2-2 by the 50th minute – through Jermain Defoe’s volley and Steven Fletcher’s header – but Sebastian Coates’ own goal then set Everton back on the path to ending a three-game winless run in the league.
Everton’s Gerard Deulofeu is both a delight and a distraction – and the playmaker showed both sides of his character in Sunday’s early kick-off against Sunderland.
That goal had helped confirm the shift in momentum in Everton’s favour following Sunderland’s unexpectedly risky start.
Kone doubled their lead just past the half-hour mark.
“I am obviously concerned about the lack of understanding in certain periods of the game with the team, particularly when we got back to 2-2”, Allardyce said.
Not too long after the first one, the Italian striker himself would get on the scoresheet after scoring from a Dusan Tadic cross.
But Martinez knows that against better opposition, as we’ve seen in games with Manchester United and Arsenal, they can not afford to concede two goals so easily and still expect to fight back and win. The first time they did, though, they struck gold.
But Sunderland recovered from falling two-down to Arouna Kone’s drive just after half an hour by pulling level with goals from Defoe and Fletcher either side of half-time. Deulofeu was again the provider of a wicked ball into the Sunderland box that looked destined to be headed home by the stooping Lukaku until Coates’ boot did the job for him, steering it into his own goal.
After all their dominance though, manager Allardyce could only watch on as an exceptional Kone through-ball put Deulofeu in, and the impish ex-Barcelona man tore towards goal and slipped a cool finish between the legs of Costel Pantilimon. We play the game out and frustrate Everton. We didn’t get it and within seven minutes we tossed the game away and allowed Everton to score three silly, sloppy goals from counter-attacks they didn’t have to work very hard for.
Two more completed Kone’s hat-trick as Sunderland completely fell apart, underlining the extent of the task Allardyce has to save them this season.
The unsafe Kone drifted inside the penalty area and after a swift one-two with Romelu Lukaku he bludgeoned the ball beyond the dismayed Pantilimon to make it 2-0.
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He writes: The Ivory Coast worldwide was outstanding as Everton scored their highest tally in a Premier League match since beating Roy Keane’s Sunderland 7-1 in 2007.
