Wolves 0-0 Everton

Everton extended their unbeaten run but failed to take all three points in an unsurprisingly drab encounter with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molinuex.

With Mikel Arteta missing from the centre of midfield Everton were always going to struggle for creativity through the middle, and the onus was on Steven Pienaar and Leon Osman to provide a bit of craft from wide areas.

The two diminutive midfielders combined to create Everton’s best chance of the opening stages, with Osman getting on the end of Pienaar’s cut-back and forcing Wolves’ American goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann to make a good save with his feet.

Everton probably did enough to feel aggrieved at having to settle for a draw, as Louis Saha, Tim Cahill and Dan Gosling all had opportunities to open the scoring, but Wolves were solid, hard-working and organised, and in a way it’s difficult to begrudge them a share of the points.

A win would have temporarily taken Everton to within two points of Liverpool, but in truth a late run at the Champions League was never really on the cards anyway. It’s easy to talk about ‘what ifs’, but even with the horrific injury crisis that Moyes had to contend with there’s still no excuse for some of the points Everton dropped in the early part of the season (the 1-1 home draw with Wolves springs to mind), so let’s not feel too sorry for ourselves.

Hopefully the players are desperate to play in next season’s Europa League and will continue to perform right up until the end of the season (which given some of their dreadful pre-December performances is the least they can do), because if that’s the case then there’s every chance we can catch Aston Villa.

Next up for the Blues is a home game against Gianfranco Zola’s woeful West Ham. The Hammers have lost five on the bounce and Everton should be looking to give them a serious hiding. West Ham have a couple of decent players in Scot Parker, Valon Behrami and the much-improved Carlton Cole, but all in all they shouldn’t be good enough to outplay, or organised enough to frustrate, a team as good as Everton. Key word there being shouldn’t, of course.

Assuming Arteta is out again I’d like to see Moyes give Diniyar Bilyaletdinov a game. West Ham aren’t the most physical team so the willowy Russian should be perfectly capable of imposing himself against them. Maybe bring him in at Jack Rodwell’s expense, with Leon Osman moving into the centre alongside Johnny Heitinga