Arteta Is Out

I've been away for a few days, enjoying the result of the Villa game and anticipating a decent shot at 3 points at the home of the 'best fans in football' on Sunday.

The great thing about being in America is they don't give 2 hoots (make that 200 hoots in New York) about football. Nothing. Nada. No interest whatsoever unless you're at school or college. They've even managed to relegate Ice Hockey to somewhere behind NASCAR and the College Football and Basketball seasons in terms of media profile. So what I'm trying to say here is I didn't hear anything about football until Monday when I was catching up on the match result from Sunday, which became an irrelevance once we learned that Arteta was gone for the season.

Sure he's got his faults has the little Spaniard. As often noted, he can fall short against the biggest teams in the Premier League, but then many others do too. The reality is that Arteta is Everton's only real creative force; he's our play-maker and the only one we've had for years. He dominates set piece play, takes most of the free-kicks, penalties, and given the time can 'manage' a game for us. On his day, he's excellent. Maybe not quite good enough for Spain and I can't see a Big Four ever signing him, but for us, he is irreplaceable.

The impact of losing Yakubu was significant and we've clearly suffered without him. Saha was a gamble and looks set to fill in his usual return of missing half the campaign, scoring a handful of goals. Fellaini hasn't quite worked out. Castillo was obviously bought after one viewing of a video and the theory that if you've played in the Balkan leagues you've got to be tough. But we've managed without them, or in Fellaini's case, with him.

The loss of Arteta is a disaster. I don't see a replacement anywhere in the squad. We'll need to somehow replicate elements of his creativity using the likes of Osman and Pienaar, which will look as unpalatable as it sounds. Moyes has done well to put a brave face on it. Saturday's game will show us what we're likely to expect for the remainder of the campaign. With Arteta, I had plenty of confidence at securing the European spot and of a trip to the FA Cup semi-finals. Without him, Moyes has to change things as we're likely to score even fewer goals.