West Bromwich Albion continued their poor start to the Premier League season after a frustrating 5-2 to Everton away at Goodison Park.
The loss for the Albion sees them remain at the bottom of the league, with the Midlands side suffering back-to-back losses by a margin of three goals.
Victory for Everton temporally places them at the top of the Premier League, with the Merseyside club picking up six points from a possible six.
Despite taking the lead through Grady Diangana after just ten minutes, goals from Dominic Calvert-Lewin and James Rodriguez turned the score around before the half-time break, with a Kieran Gibbs sending off in stoppage time of the first period causing an uphill battle for the visitors.
Although the Baggies' went down to 10 men and were without manager Slaven Bilic for the second-half due to seeing red from referee Mike Dean, they were able to level the score shortly after the restart.
A Matheus Pereira free-kick gave the Albion something to cling onto, but the task was too steep, with Michael Keane giving the hosts the lead for the second time in the match just seven minutes later, and a further brace from Calvert-Lewin not only giving the Toffees’ a three-goal advantage but allowing him to go away with the match ball.
* On the half-time score-line
“This first-half it can’t finish two-one, we can’t let it go, the way we played, the way we were tactically, the way we were closing them down, the way we were passing the ball, the way we pressed them, the way we created chances, it can’t be two-one for them.
“That naivety to go two down when we are one up and to get a red card it is very frustrating.”
Bilic was impressed with his side in the opening exchanges of the match, with West Brom starting the match in a similar vein to that of the opening fixture against Leicester.
Different to last weekend, the Albion were rewarded with the first goal, with a surging, counter-attacking run from Diangana finished off by the 22-year-old.
Cracking the post soon after, the Baggies’ style of play seemed to cause Everton a lot of problems, but a scruffy goal from Calvert-Lewin followed up by a smart shot from outside the box by Rodriguez completely changed the complexity of the game, with the red card late on causing even more problems.
On the red card for Kieran Gibbs
“No, he can’t do that, he’s got enough, he’s old enough, he’s experienced, played a really great game up until then.
“He wasn’t clever enough to go down when he [James Rodriguez] clipped him, unfortunately after that he reacted and gave the referee no other option to be fair but to give him red card.”
Frustration from Gibbs saw the visitors reduced to 10-men at the half-time break, with the single-goal defecate made increasingly harder to come back from as a result.
Forcing his side to change the system that had got them a strong foothold in the game, with their counter-attacking 5-4-1 moving into a defensive 4-4-1, the away side were only able to muster a single shot in the second half, compared to five shots in the first period.
With Gibbs now facing a suspension, Connor Townsend will now be given a chance in the first team.
On the use of VAR
“The guys from the analysis, they told me and they show it that it defiantly foul for us before their first goal, I checked it afterwards and it was.
“If they were watching that situation three or four times then they could have, should have clearly seen that Calvert-Lewin is going for a ball but he doesn’t touch it.”
As said previously, the equalising goal was crucial in terms of the momentum in the match, with the strike from Calvert-Lewin firmly changing the swing of the match in the Toffees’ favour.
Despite the goal originally be called offside, with the ball adjudged to have hit Darnell Furlong rather than Richarlison in the build-up, Bilic believed that there should have been a free-kick before that in the Baggies favour, and was left frustrated with the use of VAR.
On his red card
The Croatian was sent-off during the break after an altercation with the officials, but insisted that he did not go ‘over the line,’ believing that he should be allowed to question the decisions made during the first half.
“As a manager that I should be in the situation to ask the referee what is going on, it is half-time it’s not during the game it is half-time nobody is here and I didn’t swear, I ask him in a frustrated way, but I didn’t go over the line.
On the West Brom performance
“We saw everything in this game, from our side of view, a lot of quality, a lot of things to be proud of, a lot of things to build on, a lot of things to come to them and tell them look just copy and paste it in the next game, but then unfortunately enough things that we simply at this level can’t do."
He added: “We only have ourselves to blame.”
Although losing by a three-goal margin, Bilic still had plenty to be pleased about. The counter-attacking danger caused by the attacking arsenal of Diangana, Pereira, and Callum Robinson caused Everton problems in the first-half, with such a performance made even more impressive by the ease in with the Toffees’ dealt with the potent forward line of Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.
However, it was the defensive frailties that left them down once again. Conceding five goals in one match makes the chances of collecting any points whatsoever incredibly difficult, with two coming from set-pieces, something that Bilic was highly disappointed with.
After conceding eight goals in the opening two fixtures, the upcoming match against Chelsea could not have come at a worse time, with the Baggies' needing a serious improvement in their defensive shape to avoid a similar result that of the previous two that they have suffered.