Stoke City 1 Everton FC 1: Blues use their heads - but Marouane Fellaini loses his

17 December 2012 07:00
How do you survive and prosper in the Britannia bear-pit?

Use your head – just not like Marouane Fellaini. The stern task for a burgeoning fine football side like Everton is to weather Stoke’s physical onslaught and respond by picking them apart cleverly and being clinical when it counts. Everton almost did just that but ultimately failed – and to make it worse Fellaini resorted to his own rough-stuff.

Sure Ryan Shawcross probably had blue dye on his hands afterwards, such was his incessant pulling and tugging of the Belgian’s shirt, but Fellaini is lucky he did not have blood on his. To respond to characteristic Stoke provocation from the England defender with a blatant, street-brawl style head-butt as Fellaini did in the second-half was indefensible, irresponsible and shocking. The 25-year-old may end up with an enforced Christmas break as a result, but David Moyes should make him train like he is going to be involved in every one of Everton’s Christmas fixtures. Fellaini has let his manager and the club’s supporters down badly at a crucial point in the season when his contribution would have been important.

Too often the influential man-mountain lets his head drop under the stifling attention of cynical opponents; sadly he let it drop on Shawcross’s forehead this time. But the reaction was symptomatic of Fellaini’s only flaw. He will not discover his true potential until he finds a way to cope with the pressure of situations like this. The former Standard Liege player will remain a marked man because of his ability, but he must learn how to stay focused. The negative publicity his head-butt will inevitably bring will not help him flourish further, but credit at least goes to his manager who bucked the trend of others by admitting he saw it.

Typically forthright, the Blues boss condemned the head-butt and maybe his honesty will persuade the FA to show a degree of leniency. Maybe. It was a frustrating outcome to another frustrating afternoon, when Moyes’s men impressed in patches but in the end returned quickly to the script which has undermined them so often this term. They rose to the first-half challenge, created chances and lived to regret missing them again. The early stages were typically frenetic with the hosts piling on pressure, and pressing Everton fiercely in their own half. It took a while for the Blues to settle, but when they did they signalled why their football has garnered such high praise lately.

Remaining cool under pressure Everton worked the ball from left-back up into Stoke’s area playing neat triangles, and Darron Gibson slipped a deft ball to the over-lapping Seamus Coleman who picked out Nikica Jelavic only for the striker’s shot to be blocked by Shawcross. As ever, the Blues’ most potent threat continued to come from their left flank, especially with Kevin Mirallas’s presence missing on the opposite wing. However, the impressive unbeaten home record of Tony Pulis’s side is no accident and although typically direct they showcased their intent when they forced Gibson into a rare lapse in possession, and worked a shooting opportunity for Matthew Etherington which the winger dragged wide.

Then when Steven Pienaar was dispossessed, a few quick Stoke passes suddenly found Kenwyne Jones in a pocket of space but he curled his left-footed shot high over the bar as Phil Jagielka closed him down. Everton’s passing still flourished in patches, but Fellaini was taking time to get into his stride, and Steven Naismith was having difficulty adapting to the game’s physicality. Suddenly, Everton were fortunate not to be behind – when an unmarked Steven Nzonzi botched a simple headed chance from a corner.

On his 200th consecutive league appearance, Tim Howard gratefully clutched the French midfielder’s header to his chest. The Toffees may have grabbed the lead themselves next, when Jelavic pounced on a deflected ball and moved it onto Naismith who beat Asmir Begovic, but saw his goalbound effort cleared off the line. There was little time for the Stoke defender to rest on his laurels though. Everton went probing again, and when Pienaar crossed Shawcross misjudged his clearing header and watched in horror as it looped up and over Begovic.

Emboldened, the Blues could have gone a long way to securing victory just moments later. Further smart interplay from Pienaar and Leighton Baines saw the latter pick out Leon Osman but the midfielder wastefully drilled his shot wide of the post. If Moyes looked more than a little infuriated in his technical area, it was understandable. Chances to take a comfortable lead into half-time at the Britannia Stadium are rare, especially when Everton’s last three visits have yielded just two points .

Stoke certainly started after the break in a fashion which suggested Everton would quickly rue the miss. Charlie Adam forced Howard into a strong save as the Potters poured forward. The visitors’ American goalkeeper had been equal to everything getting thrown at him; judging crosses adeptly and standing tall when it mattered. So it was typically contrary Everton when he was chiefly at fault for Stoke’s leveller. Shawcross aimed an almighty hoof into the Blues area and Jones rose splendidly above Jagielka to beat Howard far too easily at his near post. With Everton rocking, Stoke’s powerful Trinidadian striker was in bulldozer mode.

Next he rode challenges from Baines and Fellaini to bustle into the area again and give Howard another fright when he almost forced the ball in. The afternoon was going steadily downhill for Everton’s talismanic Belgian. Clearly not firing on all cylinders he compounded an off-day with his meltdown.

The incident contributed to deterioration in the game’s already patchy nature. Tempers started to fray as both sides mixed it, and Shawcross’s tussle with Fellaini continued to niggle away as the Belgian then stuck an elbow into his foe’s face, as Jelavic also showed his frustration at Stoke’s rough stuff. Sylvain Distin might have scored from a Baines corner but again the chance was wasted, and Moyes decided a change was due. Off came a subdued Naismith, and in his place teenager Ross Barkley was given a chance to show his progress since being sent on loan to Sheffield Wednesday. It was a tall order for the 18-year-old to shine on this particular stage, with the game so finely balanced.

And only the combined resilience of Howard and Distin kept the Blues in it when the shot-stopper used his legs to thwart sub Cameron Jerome and then the Frenchman headed Peter Crouch’s follow-up attempt from almost off the line. Deadlock seemed imminent but Everton typically wasted another chance to seize the points at the end. There was to be no repeat of the last-minute heroics at Goodison last Sunday when Pienaar skipped past two tackles but steered a lame shot past Begovic’s post. There are worse things than a point in the Potteries – chiefly the headache Fellaini’s stupidity will leave for not only Shawcross but his own club over Christmas.

Source: liverpool_echo