God Is Great

Nice one Steve. A Spurs mate from work gave me an armload of stats about how (relatively) poor both Everton and Spurs have been in the Premiership down the years - like it needed a load of statistics to tell fans of both clubs that. Anyway, the only one that really matters was another 3 points won at 'the Lane', making it three wins there in 3 years. Our away form still conspires to put further emphasis on our appalling performances at home this season. The bad news, and there was plenty, sees Yakubu gone for the season to an achilles injury and Louis Saha picking up a hamstring putting him out (probably) for a couple of weeks. Who knows what predictions you can make when a 30-year old, injury prone power striker goes down with this type of injury.

What we do collectively know is that our near goal-scoring future is likely to lie with young Victor Anichebe leading the line, possibly supported by Tim Cahill. Reverting to Moyes' trusted 4-5-1 formation is on the cards, only this time at least it is forced and not by choice. I like Vic's aptitude and maybe a run in the team with a set role could see him develop a bit? I would imagine most pressure will be on the midfield trio of Cahill, Osman and Pienaar to provide a more realistic goal threat.

The Next Big Thing

Some interesting news doing the rounds on various internet sites from a brief article in a recent edition of the Liverpool Echo mentioning Michael Branch. At one point in the mid-90s, Michael Branch was being spoken about in very hushed tones as the next big thing. Unfortunately for Michael, he wasn't, but Everton did find the genuine article some years later as Wayne Rooney emerged from our academy scheme. Branch never cracked it at Goodison, did OK for a while at Wolves but fell down through the football pyramid ending up at Halifax Town. Now though, he's off to try and kick-start his career in Australia, trying out at Queensland Roar.

In amongst the various web notes, I came across this link on a site called 'Up The Posh'.

Thai takeover

Nothing to do with a multi-millionaire Thai businessman buying Everton. I got a call this morning at 8am from a work colleague. He runs our nightshift and was calling to let me know he's stuck in Bangkok as the airport has been closed by anti-government protesters. He reckons he'll find a few things to keep him occupied whilst waiting for the military to move in and end the blockade. Visiting temples and so on.

Oddly he didn't mention anything about Everton's swift response to the government's PBR commitment to lowering the VAT rate to 15 per cent by reducing ticket prices by a pound. But then nobody else did either.

O'Shea

To recover my senses from last night's diabolical showing by Everton, I'm dipping in to a bit of Champions League, watching Villareal take on Man Utd. Not a fan of the concept or the hype. The competition has been found out and they'd be better getting it over with and giving a bye to the top English sides through to the quarter-finals each year. But that isn't my point. My point is this. Despite Manchester United being the best side in England for nearly 20 years now, Ferguson remains loyal to one donkey in every generation of the brilliant squads he builds. The current incumbent is John O'Shea. If O'Shea is on the team sheet and United are playing your side, you know how Fergie rates your team. O'Shea is a football barometer - if the match doesn't matter, or the manager is supremely confident of a United win, O'Shea plays. It rarely backfires.

Watch out for O'Shea signing for Everton over the next couple of seasons. That's just our luck.

Wigan

Awful. Awful. Awful. Again. I have an opinion on Everton's season to date. I think we've played well for a solitary 45 minutes in the second half against Man Utd at home. That's it. We battled well at Stoke and played reasonably in patches at West Ham and Hull. Pretty much everything else has been rank. And the Wigan game yesterday was a perfect illustration. No tactical approach, no guile, no style. If you don't have any decent footballers in the starting eleven (and i'm excluding Arteta here now because anyone who delivers set pieces as badly as he is doing isn't a good player), you have to fight for it. That's what we did when Joe Royle turned up in the 90s. Fought well until he could add craft. But we seem to have elected not to bother and the best footballers also happen to be the smallest and most easily dealt with by the stronger players in the Premier League (Osman, Pienaar).

On paper and looking at the League table, Wigan were bad. They didn't even play well but beat Everton quite comfortably. If Tim Howard hadn't been in top save-making mode it could have been a three goal defeat.

I see us live most weeks and have felt we've been riding our luck and getting unmerited results for weeks; Fulham at home, Bolton and West Ham away. Didn't outplay any of those three mediocre teams. Middlesboro looked at ease for most of the home game last weekend. Don't fancy a festive run up to Xmas.

Rank.

Dolphins Were Monkeys

Coming away from the game against Middlesboro last Sunday, feeling let down, frustrated, annoyed et al, someone said to me; 'well it wasn't all that bad. They could have lost'. You can probably tell that statement came from a woman. Anyway, I was reminded of the last time I came away from Goodison feeling mad after the home FA Cup defeat to the mighty Oldham last season. My car stereo was bust and I had to listen to the same Ian Brown CD over and over again for a 3 hour car journey.

Ian missed a line from his otherwise excellent F.E.A.R track. F**king Everton Are Rubbish.

Destination Kirkby

I'm pretty ambivalent about the ground move. What I'd really like the club to do is (somehow) redevelop in our current location. Stick a nice 47,000 seater right on Goodison Road with state of the art facilities, great sight lines and a robot to clean up the streets. But that ain't happening. What I definitely DO NOT WANT is to be stuck with a JJB / Reebok box out in some barren, miles-from-anywhere wasteland. Or to be part of a giant retail park. That looks to be what we're getting. What Arsenal did with the Emirates has to be the blueprint for any club with aspirations of greatness, pretty much everything else is terrible. One thing that did strike me on Sunday was just what we'd be saying goodbye to in the inevitable event that we re-locate to Kirkby. Reckon you'll see a sign like this anywhere else? I mean the escalator to the Top Balcony is unique right?

Credit Crunch?

Boro fans - where are you? OK so it was a Sunday, the game was on TV, there is a recession on, and it was a match with Everton at Goodison, a place where traditionally Boro get nothing, but surely a few more could have made the trip across the M62? Maybe not. For most of the match, I can't say I was greatly enamoured with my 240 mile trip. But what can you do? If it needs those 240 miles to avoid Richard Keys and his band of bland, fawning men, I'll do it. Even my dislike of Sky is being tested by Everton at present who continue to stumble through matches, showing little cohesive shape or play. Certainly no width and not a great deal of invention. Despite this, they've been winning recently and somehow made it up to 7th spot in the league table last weekend. That said, with a run of games versus a tougher Wigan, a resurgent Tottenham and then Villa, City and Chelsea coming up before Christmas, we could equally be bottom seven by the time Santa drops down the festive chimney. Yo-ho-ho.