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Everton 3-0 Southampton: Three things we learnt
Everton got their year off to the best possible start after they ran out comfortable 3-0 winners over Ronald Koeman’s former side Southampton at Goodison Park.
After a relatively lethargic first half, three goals in the last twenty minutes from Enner Valencia, Leighton Baines and Romelu Lukaku ensured that Everton consolidated their position in the Premier League table and condemned Southampton to their third consecutive defeat.
Southampton’s loss extended their poor run of results at Goodison Park, only winning once in 18 away Premier League encounters dating back to November 1997.
We analyse three things that were learnt from Koeman’s victory over previous side Southampton…
Southampton look lost in defence without Van Dijk
Virgil van Dijk’s late sending-off in the New Years’ Eve loss to West Brom meant that Jose Fonte regained his place in the Southampton starting line-up, but it did nothing to stem the flow of goals that the Saints have been conceding lately as Everton ran riot in the final 20 minutes.
After a low key first half, Southampton found themselves under increasing pressure from Everton as the game went on, and as Lukaku and Valencia became more involved in the match and penned Southampton back it seemed as if Yoshida and Fonte couldn’t release this pressure.
This was evident in Yoshida’s rash challenge on Valencia for Everton’s penalty, which led to their second goal, and it’s arguable that Van Dijk would have dealt with this far better had he been playing.
Van Dijk has been the subject of transfer speculation for a few weeks now, and his importance to Southampton (both defensive and offensive from set pieces) was clear once more on Monday in his absence.