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Leicester City’s Chris Wood nets late equaliser against Everton Leicester City’s Chris Wood nets late equaliser against Everton
(about 1 hour later)
Chris Wood’s equaliser ensured Leicester’s return to the Premier League after a decade away began on a positive note, but the Everton manager, Roberto Martínez, will be wondering how this one got away from his team. The new season is only one game old but the problems are already mounting for Roberto Martínez.
After Everton had dominated throughout and deservedly led through goals from Aiden McGeady and Steven Naismith, a lack of urgency in the second half allowed Nigel Pearson’s side back into the game when they had looked dead and buried. With the Everton manager hoping to go one better than last year and break into the promised land of the Premier League’s top four, the news that Ross Barkley’s knee injury could keep the England midfielder out of action for several months was about as welcome as Chris Wood’s equaliser four minutes from time which earned Leicester a point on their return to the top flight after a decade’s absence.
As the Everton manager knows all too well, two points can be absolutely vital when it comes to the crunch in the race to finish in the top four and, even at this early stage, they are already playing catch up. Barkley will have further scans on the medial knee ligament injury he picked up in training later this week and despite a brilliant finish from his replacement in the No10 role, Steven Naismith, Martínez will be praying the prognosis on his young star isn’t as bad as feared.
After the blow of losing Ross Barkley for up to two months with a knee injury earlier in the week, at least Martínez was able to call on new permanent signings Gareth Barry and £28m striker Romelu Lukaku while other fresh arrivals Muhamed Besic and Christian Atsu had to make do with a place on the bench. Leicester had their own club record signing leading the line in form of Leonardo Ulloa – albeit for £20m less from Brighton. “The problem is with his medial ligament in his knee and we don’t know how bad it is,” the Spaniard said. “It could be between seven weeks or four or five months. But however long he is out for, we need to make sure we react as a team. Of course we’re going to miss him a lot. He was looking so sharp in pre-season and we were so unlucky to lose him to an innocuous challenge in training. Now he’s going to be out for a long, long time.”
Yet after 10 years away from the top-flight, it was neither of them whose picture adorned the front cover of the matchday programme but Thai owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. He has stated in the past that he would like to see Leicester compete with the top clubs in the country within five years, although for now it seems he will be content with mere survival, given the length of time it has taken Leicester to escape the Championship. All the talk before this match was about the full debuts of two new strikers costing a total of £36m, although it was Leonardo Ulloa, Leicester’s £8m signing from Brighton, who found his way onto the scoresheet as he equalised within two minutes of Aiden McGeady’s spectacular opener before Naismith restored the lead just before half-time.
The early signs looked promising for the hosts, with Riyad Mahrez looking particularly dangerous when he cut in on his left foot against an Everton defence that was missing Seamus Coleman. But having matched their opponents, a cruel stroke of luck and a brilliant finish from McGeady combined to give the visitors first blood in the 20th minute. Martínez was full of praise for £28m Romelu Lukaku as the Belgian striker made his full debut having spent last season on loan from Chelsea, although the 21-year-old looks well short of match practice after featuring in his country’s run to the quarter-finals in Brazil.
After a corner, a tame shot from 30 yards from Leighton Baines deflected straight to the unmarked Sylvain Distin. Kasper Schmeichel was out quick to smother his effort, only for McGeady to curl an unstoppable shot into the far corner. Despite the arrival of Argentine Ulloa also for a club record fee, it was Leicester’s Thai owner Vichaj Srivaddhanaprabha whose face adorned the matchday programme on their return to the top flight. He has stated in the past his target to see Leicester compete with the top clubs in the country within five years, although for now it seems he will be content with mere survival given the length of time it has taken them to escape the Championship.
To their credit, Leicester did not let their heads drop and were level within two minutes. Ulloa rose highest to meet a corner from Anthony Knockaert and was pleasantly surprised to see the ball fall into his path for a simple finish. On paper, Nigel Pearson’s side looks like it lacks the required experience to survive at this level yet a spirited comeback in the second half that culminated in Wood’s smartly-taken finish showed that they will have half a chance. “It’s nice to get something out of the game having gone behind twice,” Pearson said. “There was an element of misfortune from our point of view about both but it would have been easy to think things weren’t going our way so I’m really pleased with the way we responded. We’ll need to improve in certain areas but the biggest message from today is that even when we have injuries we are capable of getting a result against quality sides.”
Anchored by Barry and James McCarthy in midfield, Everton made most of the running. McGeady should have done better when presented with a golden chance to score his second, while Naismith’s shot from distance missed by a foot. For Martínez, it was definitely a case of two points dropped. Even with a strong bench featuring new signings Muhamed Besic and Christian Atsu which should help ease the loss of Barkley, the manager accepted that he could have done more to secure the three points.
But having served warning of his goal threat, the diminutive Scot was not to be denied. On the stroke of half-time, John Stones’ cross found Steven Pienaar at the back post and the South African did well to set up Naismith to restore Everton’s lead. “We should have won but it is only us to blame,” he said. “We controlled the environment of playing a newly-promoted side well and went ahead but we should have gone for the third goal rather than just trying to hold on. We didn’t show the concentration levels that are needed. It’s disappointing to concede a goal so late.”
Despite an appearance on the pitch from world snooker champion Mark Selby at half-time, the hosts continued to find possession hard to come by as Everton dominated the middle of the pitch. When their chance did finally come, it was a moment Jeffrey Schlupp won’t want to remember in a hurry. Wood could easily have found himself back in the Championship without having kicked a ball in anger after Wolves saw a bid rejected for him this week. However Pearson insisted he is going nowhere and, on the evidence of his cool finish past Tim Howard, you can see why. “He’s staying. I’ve spoken to Chris on a couple of occasions this week and he is happy to stay,” said the manager.
The winger had just replaced Knockaert when he was played in by Dean Hammond but with just Tim Howard to beat, his first touch was lucky to land in row Z. Other than that, there was little to worry the Everton defence marshalled superbly by Phil Jagielka. “It can be unsettling for any individual to be involved in speculation about his future but I’m very pleased he was able to play his part in securing our first Premier League point of the season.”
Having taken a theatrical dive that saw referee Mike Jones conned into booking Barry, Ulloa was withdrawn in favour of Wood and immediately Leicester looked more of a threat. Barry was then lucky to escape a second caution after blocking the run of Mahrez into space when the break looked on.
The Algerian was to have the last laugh, however. With four minutes left, a jinking run left three players in his wake before his shot deflected straight to the unmarked Wood in acres of space and the New Zealander made no mistake to draw Leicester level.
A superb clearance from Liam Moore at the other end denied Naismith what would surely would have been the winner in the dying seconds of normal time but Leicester held firm to secure what could be a very valuable point come the end of the season.