Everton vs Sunderland: 5 of the Toffees biggest Premier League wins ahead of key clash
David Moyes’ Everton head to the Stadium of Light to face a surging Sunderland side next week in increasing need of a win.
Tottenham’s 3-0 win over the Toffees at the weekend, where Jake O’Brien was unfortunate to see a goal overturned by Craig Pawson after VAR review, means it’s just one victory in the league since August.
While alarm bells aren’t exactly ringing on Merseyside just yet the club are stuck down in 14th so three points over the Black Cats would go a long way to bringing back some of the positivity of the early weeks of the season.
It’s unlikely to be easy however when Regis Le Bris has his promoted side riding high in fourth after their last-gasp victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Here, Goodison News looks at the Toffees’ five best Premier League victories over their upcoming opponents from the Premier League era as Moyes and co. seek to add to the list.
Everton goal-fests top list of major victories
Everton 7-1 Sunderland – 24 November 2007, Goodison Park
What Moyes could do with some of the finishing ability up front he was able to field to great affect in this clash during his first period in charge.
Amid Beto and Theirno Barry’s current struggles in front of goal the Scot would jump at a return like this from the likes of Yakubu, Andy Johnson and Tim Cahill.
The Toffees overwhelmed Roy Keane’s men 18 years ago to race into a three-goal lead heading into the break, thanks to early strikes from the Nigerian and the Australian respectively, before Steven Pienaar added a third late in the half.
Yakubu’s opener came from some awful Sunderland defending as keeper Tim Howard’s long punt forward was allowed to bounce and the Everton forward ran through before seeing his shot deflected over Craig Gordon, and it was downhill from there for the visitors.
Dwight Yorke pulled one back in first-half stoppage-time but it was no sign of things to come as Cahill added his second just after the hour and Yakubu followed suit soon after.
Substitute striker Johnson and Leon Osman got one each late on to put some gloss on the scoreline and leave the famous old ground bouncing.
Everton 6-2 Sunderland – 1 November 2015, Goodison Park
The Toffees paid a suitable tribute to the late Howard Kendall as they ran riot a decade ago, with Seamus Coleman in the side and future boss Sam Allardyce in the opposing dug-out.
Despite having star man Romelu Lukaku leading the line it was the unlikely figure of Arouna Kone who stole the show with a hat-trick – half of the six league goals he managed during his Everton career.
After weathering some early Sunderland pressure Gerard Deulofeu opened the scoring before Kone smashed home his first from the edge of the box.
The visitors fought back through Jermaine Defoe and Steven Fletcher either side of half-time, but Everton were quickly back in front as Sebastian Coates put it into his own net under pressure from Lukaku before the Belgian added one of his own soon after.
Another nice Kone finish put the result beyond doubt before he rounded out his hat-trick with a header for Roberto Martinez‘s side, on a day he never came close to replicating for the Blues.
Everton 5-0 Sunderland – 26 December 1999, Goodison Park
Walter Smith’s men made things miserable for Toffees legend Peter Reid’s Sunderland on Boxing Day as the home side celebrated Bill Kenwright‘s takeover of the club.
Don Hutchison scored twice inside half an hour to send Everton on their way, the second a long-range volley, before Francis Jeffers slid in a third before half time.
Mark Pembridge added to Reid’s woes in the second half before the late Kevin Campbell rounded off the scoring in a one-sided affair to head into the new millennium in style.
Everton 4-0 Sunderland – 9 April 2012, Goodison Park
A much-changed Moyes line-up ahead of the FA Cup semi-final, featuring the likes of Royston Drenthe and Magaye Gueye, went into the break goalless late in the campaign against Martin O’Neill’s visitors.
But Gueye slammed in his first goal for the club, his only one in the league, on 52 minutes before Pienaar and Osman curled almost-identical strikes home within the space of two minutes mid-way through the half.
Victor Anichebe then came off the bench and compounded Sunderland’s misery by scoring a late fourth via a Jack Colback deflection.
The good feeling wasn’t enough to carry Everton into the cup final, however, as they would lose a tight Merseyside derby 2-1 to Liverpool despite going ahead through Nikica Jelavic.
Sunderland 0-3 Everton, 12 September 2016, Stadium of Light
In a rare comfortable away day for the Toffees in this fixture the visitors took advantage of a Black Cats side destined for relegation at the end of the season under the stewardship of Moyes, during his wilderness years after leaving Goodison originally.
Sunderland wouldn’t find their way back to the top flight for nearly a decade and are a very different proposition under Le Bris now.
It took an 11-minute hat-trick from Lukaku to wrap up the early-season points for Ronald Koeman’s side in the second half.
The striker hadn’t scored for six months prior to the match but ended the drought emphatically as he nodded Idrissa Gueye and Yannick Bolasie crosses past Jordan Pickford in the home side’s goal, before racing clear to slide in his third.
By definition Sunderland’s years outside of the top flight makes recent history hard to draw from, but Moyes and Pickford would certainly love to be on the right side of Everton’s next league win at the Stadium of Light on Monday.