This was our game in hand and a chance for us to increase the gap between us and the other two teams, as well as deal Everton the crushing blow to their dreams of a top four finish. The final result meant that we didn't quite achieve the target that we wanted. However, let's not kid ourselves here.
Manchester City stumble at Goodison Park against the 10-men Toffees
It has been a season David Moyes' side has lived up to the expectation to produce some spectacular football and also sweet results. Having been in the race for the Top 4 for most of the season, recent injury crisis and Liverpool's revival saw them momentarily in a season-low 7th position in the Barclay's Premier League.
Manchester City's chances at defending the Premier League title took a devastating blow on Saturday as the club fell 2-0 to a determined Everton side.
The host Toffees rebounded from last weekend's 3-0 FA Cup quarterfinal loss to relegation-threatened Wigan Athletic with a hard-fought victory over second-place City.
Talking Tactics: Everton's Left Wing is both Greatest Strength and Biggest Weakness is a post from: Just Football
Leighton Baines has started every Everton league game this season. From those 25 matches he has claimed five man of the match awards, scored five goals and made three assists only Patrice Evra of Manchester United has assisted more goals from defence in England.
The English Premier League was the only top European league in action this weekend, so football supports everywhere got their fix by tuning in to watch EPL clubs do battle.
The result was a goal-filled weekend that saw scoring in bunches.Chelsea needed a late brace from Frank Lampard to top streaking Everton.
Everton 1-2 Chelsea Premier League 30th December 2012
Blues' legend Frankie Lamps served the powers that be at Stamford bridge a timely reminder of his goal-scoring talents as the midfielder, who looks unlikely to stay with Chelsea after this season, bagged a vital brace at Goodison Park.
Marouane Fellaini's blatant headbutt on Stoke City captain Ryan Shawcross was all over the headlines of most major sports websites following his club's 1-1 draw at the Brittainia Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Perhaps, because it was the only newsworthy event of a phenomenally boring encounter between formerly fourth-placed Everton and the relentlessly hoofballing Potters.
Everton player Nikica Jelavic (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
PREVIEW
On Saturday, Everton head to the Britannia Stadium flying high after their heart-thumping come from behind victory over Tottenham Hotspur last weekend. The win gave the Toffees all three points for the first time in five matches and injected some much needed belief into a squad that had begun to lose themselves after a bright start to the campaign.
In my weekly column on SWOL, I take a look back at the weekend's English Premier League action and the talking points that it throws up, as well as any significant news related to English football at large. We welcome your thoughts in the comments section below.
Robin van Persie of Manchester United celebrates (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
We start with a showdown between Americans in the Premier League, with Tim Howard's Everton beating Clint Dempsey's Spurs 2-1 after staging a stoppage time comeback at Goodison Park on Sunday. Dempsey opened the scoring in the 76th minute, but Steven Pienaar equalized in the 90th and Nikica Jelavic scored the winner two minutes later.
Marouane Fellaini of Everton celebrates after scoring their second goal (Photo by Scott Heavey/Getty Images)
Despite a dominating performance by the superhuman freak, Marouane Fellaini, Everton failed to grab all three points for the third game in a row.
The match began with the Toffees looking lively before Phil Neville made a reckless challenge on Dimitar Berbetov and Bryan Ruiz curled a 22 yard shot into the top corner.
Kevin Mirallas of Everton (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
PREVIEW
Everton head to Craven Cottage on Saturday for a showdown with an in-form Fulham side that sits 7th in the Premier League table, just two points behind the Toffees. David Moyes' side enters the match unbeaten in its last seven in the league but with three straight draws will be hungry to return to their early-season winning ways.
Liverpool make the short hop to Goodison Park on Sunday as they line up to play their 219th Merseyside derby. As a neutral the fixture is often unmissable and even more so if you are a Blue or a Red.
Arsenal's tiny London rivals QPR may be at the bottom of the League without a win so far this season, but after an improved performance in yesterday's 1-1 draw with Everton, Adel Taarabt believes that they can now build on that against Arsenal next week.
"We have a tough game at Arsenal on Saturday," he said.
Everton may have made a better-than-expected start in the Premier League but their Capital One Cup defeat at Leeds, a match they were expected to win, will not have gone down well with fans who are desperate to win a trophy. The Blues, who regularly picked up silverware in the 1980s, have not won anything since the FA Cup back in 1995 and will have looked at this season's League Cup rightly as a trophy they could have added to their honours list.
After a 2-0 victory against Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup, Southampton heads north to Goodison Park to face Everton on Saturday. The Saints secured their first Premier League win last weekend when they roared back from one down to score four goals in 30 minutes against Aston Villa.
The major talking point from Tuesday's game against Newcastle United was inevitably (and rightfully so) the two blunders by the officials, but although Everton will be aggrieved not to have picked up three points they will take heart from the strength of their left flank.
Demba Ba struck two goals after coming off the bench as Newcastle United came from behind twice to get a hard-earned 2-2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park.
Newcastle United came from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park thanks to two goals from second-half substitute Demba Ba.
TweetYear after year Everton defy the odds with a team thin on the ground. But now they seem to have a side that is strong and settled. Can this be the year that David Moyes and the Toffees finally win the silverware they truly desire. Starting from the back and based on last year's record [...]
1. It's well known that Manchester City have money to throw around, but coppers aimed at Rio Ferdinand's eye is taking things a bit too far. Bound to fall foul of the Financial Fair Play regulations. 2. Fernando Torres is scoring goals and smiling. That makes at least one person at Stamford Bridge who's delighted [.
Everton defender Sylvain Distin believes the club are now ready to once again compete for a
Champions League place following a summer of change at Goodison Park.
Manager David Moyes has long been praised for his ability to make shrewd signings for knockdown
prices and he appears to have once again repeated the trick in recent months, by bringing Scotland
international Steven Naismith to Merseyside and permanently re-signing Steven Pienaar.
Swansea remained perfect on the season, Man Utd held on at Old Trafford, and Chelsea blanked
Newcastle United in the English Premier League on August 25, 2012. Other results include Everton
winning at Aston Villa, QPR earning a draw at Norwich City, Wigan winning at Southampton, and Spurs
held at home by West Brom.
Aston Villa 1-3 Everton Premier League 25 August 2012
Aston Villa, having barely strengthened their squad during the summer, were utterly dire at home
to Everton, with the visitors going in 3-0 up at the break.
Steven Pienaar opened the scoring with a superb effort early on while Marouane Fellaini headed
home his second of the season.
There is a reason David Moyes currently boasts the third longest tenure in charge of a Premier
League club. That reason is consistent top half finishes and multiple European campaigns, all with
very limited resources.
Some very shrewd business over the years has cemented Everton's place amongst the Premier
League's top eight clubs and by the end of this coming season, we could be lauding another few
displays of brilliance by the Scot.
Newcastle Utd vs Tottenham Hotspur, St James's Park, Saturday 18th August 2012, 5.30pm
ko, ESPN & ESPN HD
So the day that excites nearly all football fans the most has finally arrived as we kick off our
campaign at the team that most said over achieved last season by finishing 5th level on points with
us.
Plus ca change. It has, in recent seasons, got to the point at which we could set our watches by
the undulations of Evertons season. Pre-Season grumpiness at a relative lack of activity in the
transfer market, followed by a slow start to the season during which the a feeling of discontent
hangs heavy in the air over Goodison Park and a strong second half to the season which sees the
club finish in, all things considered, a relatively healthy position.
Another day another transfer link and this time it sees Tottenham mentioned in connection with Lyon's Michel Bastos. Despite his name and his playing base, Bastos is a Brazilian international with 10 full caps to his name and throughout his career has been mostly deployed on the left wing.
At first, a move for the 29 year old seems unlikely because of Gareth Bale's dominance on the left and if an injury were to arise, AVB may well see Andros Townsend as being perfectly capable of slotting in as Bale's cover.
In a recent press conference, Spurs' head coach Andre Villas-Boas was very complimentary about some of the fringe members of the squad and Andros Townsend was one of those singled out for a mention.
Townsend had just appeared as a second half substitute for Tottenham against Aston Villa and was shortly to score his third goal for the club away to Carlisle in the Capital One Cup.
Sylvain Distin stopped short of saying this is the best Everton squad since he moved there, but he
did reveal his excitement at the team's potential
The close-season is usually a grim time for the Toffees as they are often forced to sell their best
players with limited funds being released from the banks' clutches in order to fund replacements.
TweetYear after year Everton defy the odds with a team thin on the ground. But now they seem to
have a side that is strong and settled. Can this be the year that David Moyes and the Toffees
finally win the silverware they truly desire. Starting from the back and based on last year's
record [...]
With transfer deadline approaching fast this Friday, Gareth Johnson givesÂ
THFC1882 his unique and funny viewpoint of who the likely
candidates are to leave and how he would approach the job:
As we'd already seen with the proposed sale of Michael Dawson to QPR, it seems that few players
are safe from AVB's clearout of Harry's men but just who will escape the deadline day cull?
Since the transfer window re-opened in June, the club has waved goodbye to Vedran Corluka,
Steven Pienaar, Niko Kranjcar and Sebastien Bassong.
What ho! That all happened in rather a flash of Euro gubbins and fuzzy Olympic bonhomie, no? For
those still drawing breath at the madness of it all I advise a jolly swift inhalation, for that
clattering of hooves without is Season 2012/13, entering stage right at a gallop.
Ave atque vale
Now unless the family monocle is playing tricks again, I fancy things are beginning to look at
tad different at N17, for all sorts of reasons - but ‘tis only right and proper to begin by
doffing caps and charging glasses in memory of a fallen comrade.
Saudi Arabia beat Yemen by a single goal in theWest Asian Federation Championship, withAbdullah Otayf's sweet pot-shot proving the difference a goal he chose to celebrate by unveiling a t-shirt tribute to an unlikely hero...
It took until the last minute, but Clint Dempsey finally got the move away from Fulham that he
desperately wanted. Though he had his heart set on Liverpool, a breakdown in communication between
them and Fulham combined with a weak deadline day offer of £3 million (£7 million less than what
Fulham originally wanted and half of what Spurs ended up paying) prevented that from happening.
