Stoke City 1-1 Everton: Instant Reaction

The winning run had to come to an end somewhere and away to Stoke City on a cold, rainy Wednesday night was likely to be the destination.

Yes, Everton’s winning run and their clean sheet run too were ended this evening as the Blues drew 1-1 at the Bet365 Stadium.

In truth, it is a result that is a little unfair on Everton. They created the better chances and had it not been for a wonder save from Lee Grant to deny Tom Davies, they would have been leaving the Potteries with all three points.

It was the start to the game that really killed their hopes. After a lacklustre beginning, they found themselves a goal down when Peter Crouch converted from close range.

Mason Holgate had been caught out by a long ball over the top and that allowed Marko Arnautovic to tee up the giant forward for his 100^th Premier League goal.

We should have seen it coming really. He’d been waiting for that goal for a while and we all know that if you need to break a duck or create a record, Everton will help you do it.

Praise to Everton though, they ground it out and got back into the game before half-time with an own goal from Ryan Shawcross and did come close to winning it late on.

Later on in the season, this may not look like a bad point but right now it’s two points dropped frustratingly.

Individual performances wise there was one standout performer and that was Joel Robles. The Spaniard was excellent here and arguably man of the match.

Morgan Schneiderlin was also decent on his first full start while Ashley Williams was solid and mostly reliable.

At the other end of the scale, Romelu Lukaku was anonymous, Ross Barkley had another evening to forget and the young lads showed their inexperience.

Mason Holgate, in particular, had a rough time of it and the fact he was hooked at half-time demonstrates Ronald Koeman felt the same way.

Luckily Manchester United could only manage a draw against Hull City so Everton remain five points behind.

Next up are Bournemouth at Goodison on Saturday and a win will be needed against the Cherries to help ease the frustration from this game.