On a perfect Saturday afternoon at Goodison Park, Carlo Ancelotti’s men ran out winners in style as they beat newly-promoted West Brom 5-2. Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored a hattrick and was rightly crowned the PL Man of The Match for the game. Richarlison was also right on cue providing 2 assists and was beating the Albion defenders time and again with pace and trickery.
But it was new recruit James Rodriguez who rightly earned the plaudits, as the Colombian scored his first goal for the Toffees. Right about the 44th minute in the game, a breakaway counter started by Michael Keane saw Everton surge forward as a functional unit. Richarlison ran on the left flank before coming through the middle and passing it to James Rodriguez.
The ex-Real Madrid attacking midfielder then switched it onto his left foot from his right, dummied the defenders and struck a powerful shot to the left bottom corner to score the goal. It was truly a moment of class from James Rodriguez and is now set to play an even important role in the game.
The match was not devoid of action in any way. Although Everton played some beautiful football on a few accounts, the bad side of the game was pretty much visible as well. Shortly after James’ goal, he appeared to challenge West Brom’s Kieran Gibbs for the ball. Flared up by the attempt, Gibbs pushed away James with his hand, almost near the eyes. Mike Dean made no hesitation to send him off with a red card.
After the half-time, manager Slaven Bilic was also involved in an altercation with the referees and after incessant arguing, saw himself resigned to the stands. There were a couple of positives for West Brom as well, with Grady Diangana and Matheus Pereira leading the attack charge for the Hawthorns-based club.
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