Not going to lie. I fully expected a loss after that second (offside) goal. Down 2-0. Away from home confines. Yellow cards being handed out like candy to a fat kid on halloween. There wasn’t much hope after an incredibly sluggish start where Everton looked more like Arsenal than Arsenal did…
Not really sure what the mindset was on our starting lineup either. Giroud on the bench. Santi (a real bright spot lately) riding the pine. We still have a make shift back line (I really haven’t been a fan of Nacho as a starter but I do appreciate him as serviceable cover); the BFG really made some weird defensive choices in this one.
We started sluggish, with sloppy passing and way too many giveaways (I am getting so fucking tired of writing out sloppy passing during the season). I am not sure if we are suffering from little man syndrome (on account of that article pointing how how small we are) but we seemed to get called on every little knock. It was really an uneventful first 45 that saw me just wanting it over so I could tell my wife that they lost, rough away game, let’s pack the kiddo up to head off to the fair now.
Right about that time I thought it was lost we finally made some serviceable changes. Santi on. Giroud on. That Costa Rican dude we have loaned out the better part of a decade. Spark returned, possession dominated. All of a sudden we looked like we knew what to do with the ball. Maybe it was the familiarity we were missing with the starters but damn, 2 goals in less than 10 minutes AWAY?!?! Against my beloved Tim Howard? Um, where was that from the start?!
Jack, yet again for me, looked out of sorts. I don’t know, maybe I just don’t have the soccer eye but I am still missing something with that lad. I’d take Santi over Jack any day right now. I can hear the argument that they are different players, etc. But Jack is being deployed in a creative position. Link up, attack, etc. Jack has never been an enforcer. Never a midfield force. I have watched too many games where the guy gets bullied off the ball, etc. (pretty sure I have posted that before). I am kind of waiting for the great Jack of all trades to finally show up (shit, give me some marketable stats or something!). As for his replacement, Santi’s drive into the box and perfect cross to a crashing Rambo was just pure beauty (on replay it looks like Everton’s back line just froze up too).
After Rambo’s goal, and our domination on possession, I knew we had to have the equalizer coming and it just had to come through Giroud (he could have had 3 goals in this game for that matter). The set piece cross into his iron skull was masterful. Nothing Timmy could do but watch in horror as Giroud put head to ball to net. Fucking beautiful. At that point I was running through my kitchen in a whisper yell like one of those dogs that had their voice box removed so they don’t bark loud (kid was still napping upstairs).
Joy set in and I figured we could maybe actually pull this one out. After 70 minutes I was thinking just end this thing so I can hit delete on my DVR. After Rambo’s goal it was, hell maybe we can salvage an away point (something we lacked a lot last year). After Giroud’s forehead missile? Fuck, let’s steal 3 bitches.
It wasn’t meant to be in the end but it ended up being one hell of a showing; one that straight pisses me off on one hand (WTF, how did this happen?!) to the other end of the spectrum (WTF, how did this happen!?). And herein lies the rub: we need points out of every game in order to stay in this race. Chelsea and City already look the part of champions. We have to earn it. We are going to need to grab this bull by the horns, cut it’s head off, butcher the shite out of it and savor that end of year T-bone. It’s not going to be easy but how do you eat an entire bull? One fucking bite at a time…