Bottom of the league

I almost totally gave up writing about Everton after the Newcastle and Brentford debacles, but the performance in Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Fulham provided a tiny glimmer of hope that we might be about to hit a bit of form.

The 3-3 draw with Manchester United at Goodison Park turned out to be a false dawn. Everton were largely battered in that game anyway, with David Moyes going a bit mad and picking Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill up front, but given the fight shown by the players to come back from 3-1 down and score twice in the dying minutes it was hard not to feel at least a little bit optimistic ahead of the home game against Newcastle United.

Despite Yakubu coming off the bench to good effect against Man United it was Jermaine Beckford who was chosen to lead the line against last season’s Championship winners. With Cahill injured it was left to Fellaini to support the former Leeds striker, who continues to look woefully out of his depth in the Premier League, and unsurprisingly Everton never really looked like scoring.

Hatem Ben Arfa settled with game with a well-taken goal on the stroke of half-time. The France international cut inside from the left-wing, asked phoney enforcer John Heitinga to move out of the way, and smacked a cracking effort past Tim Howard. Cue Geordie bedlam.

You can add Ben Arfa’s name to those of Alex Hleb, Martin Petrov, Hamit Altintop and (at a stretch) Jermaine Pennant on the list of natural wide players who were available either on loan or a free transfer during the summer, but whom Everton showed no interest in.

If you thought things looked bleak after Newcastle then you were probably ready to bounce your season ticket off Moyes’ head in the wake of the League Cup tie away at Brentford. Everton sent out a strong team against a side struggling near the bottom of League One, so there were really no excuses when after failing to hold onto a lead or break them down a second time Everton were dumped out of the competition on penalties.

The fact that Alex Ferguson didn’t bother showing up to his side’s 5-2 win at Scunthorpe shows what little regard the League Cup is held in, but it remains Everton’s most realistic means of ending what will soon be a 16 year trophy drought. Winning a domestic cup is probably Everton’s best hope of getting back into Europe at this point as well.

Moyes was probably relieved that his team’s next game would come away from home at Fulham, as it’s hard to imagine the Goodison crowd showing much patience with Everton’s new brand of football; which essentially involves sitting very deep, passing the ball across the back for thirty seconds and then running out of ideas.

Injuries to perennial starters Leon Osman and Tony Hibbert gave Moyes an opportunity to try something different at Craven Cottage. Phil Neville came in at right back with Seamus Coleman ahead of him, Fellaini dropped back into his favoured holding midfield role alongside Mikel Arteta, and Cahill returned to partner comedy figure Yakubu Aiyegbeni in attack.

Although Yakubu appears to have completely lost his ability to accelerate he remains by far Everton’s best all round striker. He’s the only one with the intelligence to drag opposition defenders out of position and create space for the midfield to attack, and despite his sitter at the end he showed enough to suggest he might be getting back to something like his old self.

Everton looked far more balanced at Fulham than in any other game so far this season. Coleman’s pace and direct running on the right provided the kind of outlet we’ve been looking for since Landon Donovan’s departure, while Arteta and Fellaini were able to exert more influence on the game without Heitinga getting in their way.

It’ll be interesting to see what Moyes decides to do with Heitinga. Given how poor a pairing Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin have been it must be tempting for Moyes to drop one of them in favour of the Dutchman. Jagielka and Distin are both out and out stoppers with distribution that is limited at best, whereas Heitinga is extremely comfortable in possession and has the ability to bring the ball out of defence and pick a forward pass.

The draw with Fulham leaves Everton bottom of the league after West Ham’s somewhat surprising home win over Tottenham. It’s best not to get carried away with league positions at this point, but if Moyes really does have designs on qualifying for Europe then Everton need to start picking up points immediately.

Barring any injuries Moyes will almost certainly start with the same team away at Birmingham on Saturday. Alex McLeish’s side haven’t lost at home in over a year and it seems unlikely that Everton’s static, predictable attack will have enough to break down such an organised outfit, but I can’t help but sort of fancy us in this one.

We should have won last weekend and, regardless of their fine record at St. Andrews, we should be looking to beat Birmingham as well. As much as I was expecting to see Fulham grab a late winner, with Mark Hughes running up and down the touchline wearing a Joleon Lescott mask and flicking V-signs at Moyes, Everton had the possession and late chances to feel disappointed at having to settle for a share of the points.

0-1, Cahill with a late header.

Starting XI for Saturday: (4-4-1-1) Howard, Neville, Jagielka, Distin, Baines; Coleman, Arteta, Fellaini, Pienaar; Cahill, Yakubu