So much for mid-season breaks. Both these clubs took the opportunity to get away in the past week, Everton for a spot of warm-weather training in Dubai and Sunderland for a perhaps ill-advised jolly to New York, yet did either look fresher or more energised by the exercise?
Did they heck as like. Until Idrissa Gueye broke the grimmest of deadlocks with a quality strike five minutes from the interval the first half had been one of the stodgiest in memory. Everton just about shaded it, but they were so unfocused in their attacks, so predictable going forward, that the crowd began to groan each time a move broke down on the edge of the Sunderland area.
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