Stoke City climbed up to eighth in the Premier League table after beating Everton 2-0 at the Britannia Stadium this evening.
Victor Moses headed the hosts ahead in the first half before Mame Biram Diouf fired home a rebound late on.
Arouna Kone and Kevin Mirallas both had late chances for the Toffees, but they were unable to get Roberto Martinez's side back into the match.
Here, Sports Mole analyses the outcome.
Match statistics
STOKE CITY
Shots: 11
On target: 3
Possession: 44%
Corners: 5
Fouls: 11
EVERTON
Shots: 10
On target: 5
Possession: 56%
Corners: 6
Fouls: 14
Was the result fair?
The statistics really do not show how one-sided this match was. Everton might have had more of the ball and more efforts on target, but Stoke rarely looked stretched at the back, while constantly threatening on the counter-attack. Both sides had a half-shout for a penalty, but both were rightly rejected by the referee, so there can be no arguments over this evening's result.
Stoke City's performance
Stoke made a bright start before letting Everton into the match, but they came strong again before the break, forcing the lead with Moses's header. The speedy winger worked well with Jonathan Walters and Peter Crouch throughout to keep Everton on the back foot, while the Stoke defenders worked superbly as a unit to limit the Toffees' chances. It was a real team performance by Mark Hughes's side.
Everton's performance
Everton looked like a team low on confidence this evening as they struggled to find options up front while Romelu Lukaku was being well-marked, while regularly finding themselves caught out by the pace of Phil Bardsley and Moses on the counter-attack. Aaron Lennon and substitute Arouna Kone showed flashes of brilliance for the visitors, but they never really looked like causing much of a problem for their opponents.
Sports Mole's man of the match
Victor Moses: The Nigeria international has been in superb form recently and put in another excellent performance this evening. He always had too much pace while on the wing, and easily beat his defender to head the ball in for the opening goal, despite being one of the smaller players on the pitch. Moses played the full 90 minutes, and tried to chase everything down right to the full-time whistle.
Biggest gaffe
It was a relatively gaffe-free evening, but the whole Everton defence probably deserves this award for their part in the second goal. Diouf and Marko Arnautovic were given far too much space to set up the latter's initial strike, while the back four failed to clear after he hit the post, leaving Diouf to rifle home from the rebound.
Referee performance
Mark Clattenburg did not have too many big decisions to make, but he rightly waved away a couple of penalties, while reaching for the cards at the right time. He might have been a bit over eager with a few free kicks in the first half, but on the whole it was a decent performance from the officials.
What next?
Stoke City: Stoke do not play this weekend, but they travel to West Bromwich Albion in 10 days.
Everton: Everton also have the weekend off, but play again next Thursday when they face Dynamo Kiev in the Europa League.
Sian Cowper
