Everton’s Lukaku battling to recover from PL second season syndrome

The Belgium international has already notched up four top-flight strikes, as well as a double in the Capital One Cup, with the Toffees winning on every occasion their potentially revived sharpshooter has found the net, exactly the impact Martinez has desired.

Thanks to Lukaku’s heroics at The Hawthorns on Monday night, Everton have climbed up to fifth position in the table and look a superior team to that of which languished in the bottom-half in last season’s run-in.

The in-form forward dispatched a brace to help secure the Toffees’ comeback from being 2-0 down before the hour mark, a double that evidently overjoyed himself and his determined manager, making them 9/1 for a top four finish.

“Rom [Lukaku] was a completely different player in the second half,” stated Martinez. “The overall performance of the team in the first half was a little bit off.

“We were sloppy and sluggish. We didn’t react quick enough. But we reset at half-time and Rom, like every player, had a different intensity in the second half. Rom has the unique strength of being the man the team needs. He has an elite brain. When he puts his mind to it he can achieve anything.”

Having started brightly this term with more dominant displays, echoing his showings during that previous successful loan spell, can Lukaku now finally become the striker he was expected to be since he was a terrorising teen?

The Merseyside marksman’s early campaign form suggests so, while Martinez will be desperate for his main man to continue to bully defences and help challenge the country’s big guns, in what could be a promising season at Goodison Park.