Today will see the return of key players for both teams, as once West Ham target Romelu Lukaku returning for hosts Everton and the suspended Andy Carroll returns for the Hammers.
Both players are star players for their respected clubs and are both similar players, of course this season has seen Lukaku take more a starring role for his club as West Ham man Carroll has been blighted with injury and a rather harsh sending off against Swansea City.
So comparing players from this season would be naïve, but today’s clash could come down to who has the best game, who dominates the game better.
With Everton’s Phil Jagielka missing it means Andy Carroll will fancy his chances more and the former Newcastle United man is chomping at the bit and will want to prove Roy Hodgson that, despite not having much game time, he is match sharp.
Lukaku meanwhile will want to step up to the mantra after missing a large spell of the season on the sidelines with his ankle injury. Sam Allardyce will know all about Lukaku having tried to loan him two seasons on the bounce. In the reverse fixture at Upton Park, he came on and changed the game.
The Hammers led 1-0 at half-time and looked in control, only for Lukaku to come on and trouble the Hammers back four, two Leighton Baines free kicks later and a Lukaku winner and the rest is history.
Allardyce will have learnt a lot from that fixture, and with his back five in the form of their lives he will be hopeful that James Collins, James Tomkins and co will keep him at bay. Carroll though since his return from injury has been somewhat of an assist king, having picked up three assists in three games.
He will want to add goals to those assists, but with the Hammers unbeaten in five that run including four wins a couple more assists wouldn’t go a miss.
This game will come down to who makes the better return; it will be billed as Carroll vs Lukaku. It might just be 45 minutes from the each so they might not have much time to impress, but both managers will hope that’s all the time it will take.
Come on you Irons!
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I think Sam Allardyce has to take total responsibility for the loss to Everton. He made 2 tactically incorrect decisions. 1) He replaced our in-form striker after only 28 minutes? What an insult that would have been for poor Carlton. I mean that is not exactly giving him a fair go is it? Sam could not even wait until half time before putting his darling Andy on. The change made absolutely no difference, Martinez had done his home work on us and had us totally worked out, as had Pardew on 18th Jan. We hardly had a shot on goal & for over an hour, Andy made hardly any difference. 2) If he was going to bring Winston Reid on then why wait until the 81st minute to do so. In fact why bring him on at all? Sam made 2 tactically incorrect team changes to our team which had won the previous 4 games. As I say, Everton had our attack worked out, & we were handling their attack until Sam took Jarvis off for Reid. It was straight after this 2nd substitution, while our defense was still re-arranging itself that Lukaku scored. We had 1 point in the bag there, and the team that had previously won all 4 games had Everton’s defense held until this changed interrupted it. We have to accept that there are 4 sub leagues in the Premier League. There are the top 7 clubs, of which Everton are a part of. There are the mid table clubs which include us, Southampton & Newcastle (even though Newcastle won 4-1, which is just 1 of Pardew’s occasional flukes) There are the lower mid table clubs, and there are the bottom 3 of which I am tipping to include Fulham, Cardiff & Crystal Palace. We have now been brought back to earth by a top 7 club. Sam has to take this loss on the chin, as we were good for at least a point against a top 7 club away from home, until he made those 2 changes to a winning team. I mean either integrate Winston as a full 90 minutes player, or leave him out of what was a winning team. This is the confusion that is going to continue along with between who do we use as our main striker, be it Carlton or Andy. This needs to be sorted out. I mean Man Utd play 2 strikers. Why can’t we? Why does one of our top scorers, being Carlton have to continually play 2nd fiddle to Andy? This is why we could not sign any more strikers, (sure we’ve got Boriello, but he’s only on loan & is still an unknown entity). I still think we are good for at least 2 – 3 more wins before the end of season. Sort it out Sam, as half of our remaining 10 fixtures are against top 7 sides!
Did you see the little comment that Nolan gave to Lukaku at the final whistle? As was almost as if Kevin said to Lukaku, “You got in there while we had our pants down”
Sorry, I mean’t to say that Reid came on for Demel, that late change in the 80th minute, while we were still re-arranging our defense, cost us the game. Sam said before, “that if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it” What was he trying to fix while bringing on Reid that late? It was working fine, and with Demel in the 11 that we had on the pitch we were preparing to see out the game & settle for a point!