Southampton 0
Everton 3
Everton's opening day draw obviously hasn't weighed too heavily on their minds, as they looked far the better side running out comfortable three-nil winners against Southampton.
Roberto Martinez's side travelled to St Mary's with the hope that they could get off to a quicker start than they did against Watford and on 22 minutes they did just that.
After a quick break down on the right hand side, Arouna Kone floated a beautifully weighted cross into the box and Romelu Lukaku powered home a header to give his side the lead.
Lukaku didn't enjoy the most prolific season with Everton last year but was keen to make up for lost time as he doubled his tally on the stroke of half-time.
Ross Barkley charged down the centre of the pitch and slipped a pass to the feet of Lukaku, who finished smartly from the edge of the box.
Goal âš½ #Southampton 0 - 2 #Everton #Lukaku has now scored more goals (44) than any other Belgian in the #EPL https://t.co/k2v4d9jdgP
— surebet247 (@surebet247) August 15, 2015
The Belgian was a handful all afternoon and between the ineffective Southampton defence and the slowly ebbbing confidence of Martin Stekelenburg, Everton kept up their relentless pace for the duration.
Graziano Pelle opened the scoring last week at Newcastle and went close on one or two occasions but the makeshift Everton held-up well.
Brendan Galloway came in for the injured Leighton Baines and performed reasonably well, requiring treatment at one or two stages for heavy challenges, but proved a hardy competitor overall.
Southampton worked the ball well up the pitch but time and again there was just one too many passes in the opposition third and the move broke down, putting their midfield under severe pressure from the counter attack.
Barkley then put the game beyond doubt in the 84th minute, after the ball was slipped across the box the England international took one touch before bending his effort into the top right corner of the Southampton net.
A jubilant Martinez on the sidelines could afford himself a smile and a fist pump, something that was sorely lacking from his touchline presence for the majority of last season.
Ronald Koeman will be lefting scratching his head as to what went wrong, a tendency to over-play the ball an outstanding feature of his side's play this afternoon.
The Merseysiders climb to second in the league on four points, if only for a couple of hours.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
