Everton in home win shock

Finally I see a home win for Everton this season. I missed the only previous one at home to Fulham, watching it in a Hong Kong darts bar with a Chinese gambling fanatic. Darts Bars are the new thing in Hong Kong - plastic arrows with those weird pre-holed boards and automatic scoring systems.

Anyway, not only did we comfortably dispatch a disappointing Sunderland 3-0, but we did it with some good football borne out of a recent run of decent displays. You could see a level of confidence returning once we went in front. The back line held firm with Jags marshaling the pacey threat of Cisse and Lescott 'managing' the strength of Kenwyne Jones. I liked Baines and Hibbert at full-back too. The middle partnership of Arteta and Phil worked as productively as it did against Chelsea on Monday night, but they didn't have much to challenge their dominance on the opposite side. Once again, Pienaar's invention was a real threat down the flanks and the two makeshift forwards ran themselves into the ground. If I was to be slightly critical, then I'd say Fellaini struggled until he was subbed, but at least he didn't get booked.

The introduction of youngster, Dan Gosling, was good to see. I read rave reviews of his play last season in the Championship for Plymouth and couldn't see why we hadn't blooded him sooner. According to the press, he was immense against Boro on Boxing Day so I was a bit perplexed to see him left out as Osman returned. Gosling's first act once on the pitch was to drive at pace straight at the Sunderland back line resulting in an inevitable foul. Now that was refreshing to see some direct play out wide. Minutes later Gosling capped a great cameo with a tap-in from Lescott's left-wing cross to seal the game at 3-0. A good introduction for the lad.

It was a timely win and a necessary one for a couple of reasons. We need to start winning at home and match our away performances this season. In addition, January is not pretty fixture wise, with Liverpool away, Arsenal at Goodison. United at Old Trafford is a nice way to start February. Realistically - you could of course argue that it's a good time to be playing Arsenal just now - Hull City on January 10th, is our best hope for a 3-point win. We need to keep in the mix as we go into February when the fixture list is kinder to our pursuit of a top 6 finish.