West Bromwich Albion 2 - Everton 3

Date:	Monday 28th September 2015
Competition:	Barclays Premier League
WBA: 5.2	(4-3-3) Myhill 4.3, Dawson 6.9, Olsson 5.3 (Chester, 28 2.7), Evans 6.4, Brunt 5.9, Fletcher 6.8, Yacob 6.0 (Lambert, 85 2.8), Morrison 6.7, McClean 5.4, Rondón 5.0 (Gardner, 68 3.4), Berahino 7.2 Unused subs: Lindegaard, Anichebe, McManaman, Gnabry Manager: Tony Pulis 4.3
Everton: 6.3
Scorers:	Berahino (41), Dawson (54)
Referee:	Robert Madley (West Yorkshire) 6.6
Attendance:	24,240 Home Fans 5.9 Away Fans 6.0

Summary:

Albion snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Everton at the Hawthorns after taking a two goal lead and conceding three times in the second half. Gareth McAuley missed out due to injury and was replaced by Jonas Olsson, but he too had to leave the pitch after less than half an hour when he stretched to make a tackle and went down holding his groin to be replaced by James Chester. Despite the setback, Albion took the lead when James Morrison fed Saido Berahino to score, and doubled it in the second half when Chris Brunt's cross was headed down by Craig Dawson.

However, the tide turned almost immediately and the game turned into the Romelu Lukaku show when he headed home Gerard Deulofeu's cross almost from the restart. Tony Pulis brought on Craig Gardner for Salomon Rondon, but this just resulted in a sustained period of pressure from Everton and they got the equaliser when Lukaku played the marginally offside Arouna Kone through to finish and with six minutes remaining, he managed to bundle the ball past Boaz Myhill for their winner. Substitute Rickie Lambert was handed a great opportunity to rescue a point in the closing minutes but blasted wide from inside the box.

The defeat leaves Albion in 15th place with eight points from seven games.

Mark Koppel:

Don't know what is the biggest capitulation, England throwing away a 10 point lead against Wales in the rugby or West Brom losing after being 2 nil up ?

Whatever the answer both are very,very worrying results.

As the Norwich game also showed, once we get past our main 11 players we really struggle. Everton also had injured players but their squad has some quality in depth totally unlike ours.

Tonight we couldn't defend at all without McAuley (who is 49 years old) and then Olsson (who is 52 years old tomorrow).

James Chester is looking like this season's Diego Lugano and cannot do anything right at all at the moment. That even includes taking some of the worst throw ins I have ever seen.

Player Ratings:

Myhill 4 - Still doesn't make any saves unless they are straight at him. Also getting stuck on his line in a very Scott Carson type way.
Dawson 7 - Looked really solid until Chester came on. Also improving as an offensive player.
Evans 7 - Solid just like Dawson.
Olly 5 - Pity he is injured, especially at the same time as McAuley.
Brunt 6 - Not sure it was him or our midfield to blame but crosses rained in from that side of the pitch second half causing total panic in central defence.
Morrison 6.5 - Maybe not his best ever game but worked hard and got forward on a few occasions.
Fletcher 7 - Not as effective as against the Villa but kept possession really well in the middle
McClean 3 - Apart from being quite good at slide tackles, not sure what he gives the team.
Saido 8 - One chance, one goal.
Rondon 3 - Looked well off the pace tonight. Easily dispossessed, never threatened the goal , won only one header due to the fact he never jumped, and at £12m he has a long way to go to pay that back.
Yacob 6 - Normal Yacob, some good challenges but also needles fouls. Gets a slightly better mark because he did pass forward a couple of times tonight.

Subs-

Chester 1 - One of the worst performances from an Albion player in the Premier League.Based on this he would have been a waste of money if a free transfer. But no, he cost £8million????
Lambert 1 - Also one chance, but one absolute howler.
Gardner 3 - He tries bless him.

So in summary the biggest concern is that most of Tony Pulis's signings are really struggling to make it if you include Rondon, Chester, McClean,and Lambert. Add to that the fact he doesn't even use Calum McManaman. Maybe he should only buy from Man Utd because they are the only players so far who have improved us.

Brendan Clegg:

Another tactical masterclass from Tony Pulis.

Another game where we concede 3 goals.

Starting lineup was understandable given we beat Villa last week although I had concerns of playing McLean and Saido on the wrong sides against. We weren't too bad first half but despite Everton being quite flat and quite poor (perhaps to our credit, I'm not convinced) we struggled to create anything.

But we ended the half a goal up thanks to TP's make-the-fewest-mistakes approach, slightly ironically via a mistake with Mclean falling over the ball due to being played on the wrong side, the ball bouncing around to Mozza who had the split-second class as vision to play in Saido who equally, being head and shoulders above everyone else, had read the situation and was already making the intelligent run on goal.

We then got an early goal in the 2nd half from a set piece which will be a delight to TP and his make-fewer-mistakes-and-score-from-set-pieces approach. So far, so Pulis.

Except that Martinez at half time had already decided he was going to leave players high up in wide areas and one simple cross later Lukaku exploited what we all know about Chester.

Pulis then went for his standard employment of Craig Gardner for any attacking outlet (Rondon in this case) and surrounded 70% of the pitch to Everton, playing a 6-3-1 formation.

Martinez duly pushed his whole back line up and Everton continued to pick up our half clearances before going on to scramble two further goals that came really from sustained pressure rather than skill or play - they got a couple of lucky breaks and it paid off.

Another game crying out for McManaman, Gnabry or Sess - nothing doing. Why? I genuinely don't think Pulis knew what to do 2 goals up. It wasn't in the plan. On we suffer... if he doesn't win at home to Sunderland will the pressure begin to mount?

Myhill - 5 I thought he could have done better for the all of the goals - the latter 2 he seemed to just stay on his line rather than rush any pressure.
Brunt - 6 As good as anyone else in the back 4 and some decent long passes.
Evans - 6 Was pretty impressive for 70 minutes but buckled with the others.
Dawson - 5 A bit harsh given the goal but we already know he struggles when moved to centre back at this level despite making the rightback place his own.
Olsson - 5 Was doing OK till he went off, one bad pass but equally a great one-on-one tackle when last man against Barclay. Proved why he got the nod over Chester.
Yacob - 6 You could just put a 6 against his name every week, he does what he does well but it's what you put around him that counts.
Fletcher - 6 Started brightly and kept it well but suffered badly as we sat back - in fairness there were no options for him to release.
Mozza - As Fletcher really, spent too much of the 2nd half too deep and couldn't get out. Wasted.
McLean - 6 Made some good tackles when playing as a second leftback and as always saved his best for the last 20 when his fitness shows but looked hopeless going forward on the right.
Berahino - 6 Lovely movement for goal but I have no idea where he played from then onwards until Rondon went off. We basically played without a left winger during that spell.
Rondon - 6 Didn't have the best of games but crucially the workrate, strength and pressure were there until he went off.

Chester - 4 Not looking anything like good enough an either position.
Gardner - 4 Gave his all as usual but McManaman was the clear option to come on. He shouldn't be judged as a winger anymore than Anichebe is as a holding midfielder. He's an understudy centre mid and playing him on the wing is stupid.
Lambert - I'll keep saying, Big Vic is more of a game changer from the bench. Looking like a very poor signing.