Published 11/10/2012 12:35:32 PM by Robert Garcia from soccermogul

It was not the best of performances for sure.  Everton boss David Moyes will not be happy with his team's 90 minutes, but he will be happy with the final scoreline.  A 2-1 Everton win over visiting Sunderland.

The first half was not pretty for the home side.  Sunderland kept it tight at the back and surrounded Marouane Fellaini in the box.  Everton looked more like a bunch of zombies rather than soccer players and the Goodison Park crowd let them hear about it at the break.

Sunderland created the best chances of the opening half and jumped ahead right at the end of the opening 45 minutes of play.  A Sunderland corner resulted in Adam Johnson finishing from close range past a helpless Tim Howard.

Everton had work to do after the break.  They came out on the front foot, but never seemed to really stretch the game.  Steven Pienarr kept coming inside and Sunderland were content to flodd the middle of the pitch defensively.  Despite most of the ball, Everton were still not creating much.

Then Marouane Fellaini decided to intervene.  He had been very quiet over the first hour of play.  Sunderland were clearly intent on not letting him influence.  They could not stop him forever though.

In the 76th minute, the match would turn.  Fellaini picked up a Leon Osman pass at the top of the Sunderland penalty area.  As he turned Sunderland were late to close out.  Felliani fired a low drive through the legs of John O'Shea and into the side net to even the game.

Everton were all square and would grab the lead only minutes later.  Once again it was Marouane Fellaini.  This time he was the passer though as he sent a deft flick (again through O'Shea's legs) that Jelavic ran onto and finished.  

Everton was in front and Sunderland were done.  Sunderland had spent all their energy defending and had nothing left to try to get the goal back.  Everton saw out the 2-1 win.  With the win EVerton sits in an impressive 3rd place while Sunderland limp along in 16th.

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