Everton star sold by Koeman is now outscoring Calvert-Lewin & Gordon

There’s an early wintry air around Goodison Park, with Everton suffering a bleak start to the season, losing their first three Premier League matches and latterly capitulating against Bournemouth.

But there were signs of promise against the Cherries, having led until the eleventh hour. One of the most exciting points, no doubt, was the performance of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who could be so important going forward.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s resurgence

Calvert-Lewin has experienced peaks and valleys over the years on Merseyside, but now it looks like he’s on the way toward restoring the one-time fitness levels that saw talent scout Jacek Kulig hail him as a “monster.”

However, he featured prominently last season and was even praised for looking “like the DCL of old” by The Athletic’s Patrick Boyland after a dominant display against Liverpool in the Premier League.

He also scored four goals and placed one assist over the final seven fixtures of the season, having carried his athleticism and form into the current campaign, scoring and assisting against Bournemouth before watching in horror as his side slumped to an inexplicable defeat.

Calvert-Lewin is playing the final year of his contract with Everton, who rejected offers from Chelsea and Newcastle United during the summer transfer window, holding out for a £40m fee.

It doesn’t look like the 27-year-old is going to pen fresh terms, but perhaps he’s proving that his on-pitch contribution could be the tipping point in the club’s bid to preserve top-flight status.

They’ve sold free-scoring strikers in the past – Romelu Lukaku, for example – but in this case, it indeed looks like the Toffees made the right decision.

On the topic of Lukaku, the Belgium international has been gone for some time now, but still enjoys a position of prominence on the European stage.

Romelu Lukaku just keeps on scoring

Lukaku, aged 31, is probably the most talented Everton striker of modern times, having been praised as an “elite” player by his Blues manager Roberto Martinez in 2015, who said that he “can achieve anything”.

Oh but doesn’t he score. Lukaku might divide opinion, sluggish at times, wasteful at others, but he’s a hulking mass of prolific energy for the most part and this is reflected through his illustrious and individual success throughout his career.

To this day, Everton remain the outfit he has performed the most fixtures for, having torn the Premier League to shreds as an up-and-coming phenom for the Blues, raising his stock and convincing Manchester United to fork out some £75m – rising to a possible £90m – for his signature in August 2017, departing Ronald Koeman’s side.

Once described as a “world-class” striker by Thomas Tuchel, Lukaku bagged 21 goals and claimed four assists across all competitions last year, and after netting on his debut for Napoli before the ongoing international break, still looks dangerous and hungry for more.

That 21-goal tally is a distance above Calvert-Lewin’s last year, who has actually only scored 16 times since the start of the 2021/22 campaign.

Moreover, Lukaku posted more strikes than another former Toffee in Anthony Gordon last year, with the England international winning Newcastle’s Player of the Season award after an excellent year that saw him score 12 times and assist 11 goals for his teammates.

Gordon’s wide-performing role in Eddie Howe’s side of course means that he is not expected to reach obscene tallies surpassing that of Lukaku, but it still illuminates the Belgian’s brilliance in the final third.

Everton were rewarded with a handsome sum for his sale, way back when, but he’d sure be a force to be reckoned with the Sean Dyche‘s side could do with at present…