Following last month’s defeat to Newcastle, David Moyes stated he would be going back to basics.
Yesterday’s gritty victory over a dogged Stoke side was built on the very foundations of seasons past - solid defending, pinching a goal and defending the lead to claim a deserved three points.
Confidence may not exactly be coarsing through Toffee veins just yet but momentum is certainly building having bagged ten points from a possible 12 in October and stretched our unbeaten run to five league games.
Having eradicated the errors, Tim Howard at Spurs apart, that blighted September, the blues are now certainly heading in the right direction.
But wins will not come much harder than they did yesterday. Everton battled their way past Tony Pulis’s unpalatable Stoke by remaining patient and trying to play football, whereas the Potters came for the draw and seemed happy to try and play down the clock from as early as the tenth minute.
Consequently, what ensued was a battle of attrition that hinged on two second half incidents.
The first when Tuncay was harshly adjudged by fussy match official Lee Probert to have pushed Leighton Baines before bundling the ball over the line.
If the visitors felt aggrieved, Yakubu was about to rub salt in the wounds. The big Nigerian did well to nick the ball off Abdulaye Faye and find Tim Cahill with an intelligent pass. The Australian thumped his 20 yard drive against the upright but the rebound fell straight back to Yakubu who controlled, sidestepped a challenge and crashed an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.
It was the first goal for the 28-year-old since April and, with his duck finally broken, hopefully the burly striker will rediscover his confidence and recapture the kind of goal scoring form he was in prior to his 12 month injury lay-off.
Having found a way through Stoke’s stubborn rearguard, Everton then played the game out by trying to pick Stoke off on the counter attack.
It was an unnecessarily risky strategy, as Stoke, for all their abbraisive style, have players in Kenwynne Jones, Tuncay, Jermaine Pennant, who came on as a second half substitute, and the impressive Matthew Etherington, who can punish teams.
But Everton held firm to claim their third win of the season and climb up to seventh place in the table, just two points behind fifth place Spurs.
In the aftermatch press conference, Tony Pulis bemoaned his side’s luck, claiming the big decisions are not going Stoke’s way at the minute, adding that he believed his team would have won had Tuncay’s effort been allowed to stand.
Obviously, he is failing to acknowledge Matthew Etherington’s trip on Baines in the penalty area that should have resulted in a penalty for the home side and that his side failed to get a shot on target all game. Anything other than a home win yesterday would have been harsh in the extreme. In September, that may well have been the case but, thankfully, Everton have indeed gone back to basics and rediscovered the art of winning ugly.
We now enter into November, a month which includes games against Blackpool, Bolton, Sunderland and West Brom - exactly the sort of games we need to be winning to consolidate the progreess made in October and more ugly wins could well be the order of the day.
But with the likes of Jack Rodwell, a surprise inclusion on the subs bench, Maouane Fellaini and Louis Saha, who made a brief cameo appearance, all edging back to fitness, the future is suddenly looking brighter.
The season thus far has been a bit of a roller coaster ride, starting off low, we now find ourselves on a high. Quite fitting, then, that our next challenge takes us to Blackpool.
Man of the match: Sylvain Distin
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