OK fellow blues I feel your pain since it's 9 days until we kick a ball in anger again at home to Swansea, and it's that time we must sit through endless media coverage of how Wayne Rooney is the savior of England and how Wembley costs will never be covered with a half full stadium. Like me, your probably counting down the days until Swansea but lets look at what we learned from Everton last Saturday and what exactly did we achieve. Going to Goodison is never easy, far from it, so much so I had us down for a draw and was willing to take that in a heartbeat and run back to Stamford Bridge like a dancing gigolo after 10 pints. Little did we know we would be 2-0 up after 4 minutes, that was the first thing that immediately surprised me. The next thing was how quick we started, it's unlike us and something we have needed for a long time, we have the attacking threat to do this more often and we should. This messed with Everton and I don't think they knew what hit them. Now when a team takes a hold of a game like we did I always think the foot comes off the gas, or is it that? Do they opposing team actually think 'Shit, we best get playing here' it's a difficult one but I always felt Everton were going to come at us from the second goal onwards, and they did. I said to my lad that if we got to HT at 2-0 it's a walk in the park, and just as the words came out Mirallas towered into the sky and nodded home past Tibo with a stunning header. Now, people might say "Why think that way at 2-0 we are coasting" one word 'Momentum' When you go to places like Goodison you don't want 1. Everton fired up as a team and 2. Their crowd being buoyant and driving them on, this goal did that. Now last season I would of said we may of collapsed, not because I am negative but because of their momentum from HT onwards. I was sat in sort of a lull at this point probably due to knowing I was about spend the evening with the wife at a party when Hazard to drive at their defence and get that some what luck touch off Coleman into the net. This result and this goal was typified our attitude and mind set in this game, get at them and drive on. Then I was thinking 'That's it, job done' far from it actually, our defence at times parted like the Red Sea and we couldn't of looked anymore disjointed if we tried, which then leads me to my next point of the attitude towards conceding. A pundit on SKY once described a team as having Bouncebackability and you couldn't of made up a better word for us on Saturday, it was just that fitting to everything. I sort of smiled to myself when Samuel Eto'o scored but also wanted to punch the TV, I don't like ex-players scoring against us, it's like that after coffee taste and it's not right. Following that it was up to a certain Ramires and Mr Costa to pull the curtain down on a superb result, and not only that but despite some calamitous defending, a great performance. I don't think the midfield covered themselves in much glory but I think credit has to be given to Everton as the tempo they played at was more like Barcelona rather than a team from Stanley Park. What was airbrushed over in all of the match reaction whether it BBC or SKY was the unbelievable save from Tibo from that Mirallas flick, that's exactly why this kid is world class, that was a possible game saving moment, yet all the analysis boffins will look closer to how he may of been at fault for every goal and all the problems in Iraq. So the positives are very simple..... Fast tempo startOur ability to strike back immediately after concedingDiego Costa againScoring 6 at a potential top four side away from homeWe look very, very dangerous going forward11 goals in 3 gamesTorres has goneNegatives...... Defence was breached too easyMidfield looked lost at timesI have no worries at all that the above negatives cannot be ironed out and the positives completely out weigh the negatives. We have just overcome a huge hurdle in this Everton away game, not one team this year will score 6 at Goodison, quote me on that. Martinez and his men were put to the sword here and they won't want to come up against Diego Costa in a hurry this season, this lad looks the complete package. Let's look forward to Swansea, not long now. CAREFREE!!! SJ Click here to view the article
