West Brom Match Report

Everton 1 West Brom 4

Well, pick the fucking bones out of that.

We seem to have a run like this every year, where the manager doesn't know his best side and consequently the team's form is laboured at best - the odd win here and there but generally struggling -until Moyes hits on a formation (usually after a couple of injuries and suspensions) which gets us together. One of the worst parts of these runs is that you always get the impression that a real twat of a result is on the way. On Saturday it arrived with bells on.

Everton were dire. Really, really fucking awful. You can point to a few moments of bad luck or judgment from our players or the referee, but there is no excuse for a performance like that. They got exactly what they deserved and, with Chelsea to come next week, need to get themselves in gear quickly, or risk being into the dogfight at the bottom of the table.

David Moyes made another baffling team selection, bringing in the desperately unfit Victor Anichebe for one of the players who has been in-form, Seamus Coleman. In addition, Yakubu came in for Louis Saha, dropped after his human statue impression at the Stadium of Light, and Tony Hibbert replaced the injured Phil Neville.

It was one of those games where the ex-Man Utd man's importance becomes horribly clear. It's no coincidence that our form dips when he's out of the side - the defence looks shakier, the team looks completely disorganised and there seems to be no-one willing to take up the mantle of actually trying to lead by example. Neville has his critics - he's not the most technically gifted by a long shot - but he is vital to the team. We need him back, let's hope the injury isn't serious.

As seems to always be the case this season, Everton started brightly - Mikel Arteta looked a bit more 'at it' than recently, Pienaar and Baines were bright as ever, and Anichebe forced a good save from Scott Carson in the opposition goal. In fact, when you look at the first 20 minutes or so it was played almost exclusively in West Brom's half - but then, as always seems the case this season, the self-destruct button was pressed and Everton gave away another stupid goal.

An Everton attack broke down and, while Anichebe appealed for a free kick instead of getting up and getting the fuck on with things, West Brom hacked a high ball down the left. Phil Jagielka - who is another who has been way off form recently - let it drift over his head and gave away a pretty needless corner. From the resulting kick, no-one picked up arch-hank Paul Scharner, and he who always scores against us planted a free header into the net. The focus of criticism has been on the strikers recently - defensively, this goal was as bad as it gets.

Everton looked shaken and the visitors began to assert themselves on the game, running things in midfield where Everton's trio - Cahill, who looked like he had a cob on, Arteta, who is never fully fit in a million years and whose confidence looks shot, and Heitinga, who is simply not arsed in the slightest - were anonymous. Arteta forced another good save from Carson from a free kick, but within minutes Everton were two down. There seemed to be no real danger as West Brom built slowly midway into the Everton half, but then Cahill went flying in to one of those stupid fouls you can see coming a mile off. Chris Brunt stepped up and lashed a great free-kick into the top corner. There were some murmurings about Tim Howard's positioning - the kick was a hell of a long way out - but, bottom line, it was a needless and pointless foul by Cahill, which was punished. As a senior player, he should know better.

That said, it's hard to have a go at the player who is our only goal threat at the moment. The second goal did seem to kick Everton into gear, and from a Baines corner Cahill sent a trademark header into the corner of the net - game on. The momentum was definitely with Moyes' men, and another Baines corner somehow sneaked past the post with Distin and Heitinga both in close attendance. Half-time came with the game very much in the balance.

The second half began with Everton still in the ascendancy and Moyes replaced Heitinga (who stunk the place out and got a less-than-warm reception from the supporters) and Yakubu with Saha and Beckford. Nothing wrong with bringing attacking players on at all - indeed it nearly worked - but by this time Anichebe was knackered and Coleman may have been a better option. As it was, a minute of utter madness flipped the game on its head shortly afterwards.

First, Pienaar and Arteta combined and the little South African spotted a great run by Beckford, playing a cute through ball into the area. One-on-one, this was the sort of chance that we were promised that the ex-Leeds man would put away in his sleep - as it was he put it too close to Carson, who got a hand to it which allowed a defender to hack the ball off the line. As the ball dropped, Baines went up for a header only to be clattered by Gonzalo Jara. It looked a nasty one - definitely a foul, probably a yellow or even worse - but the hapless Lee Mason gave nothing. Jara then went flying in on Arteta - again it looked a foul - but nothing was given. In the ensuing scramble, Arteta 'did a Fellaini' and stupidly aimed a stamp at the Chilean full back. He made little contact, but a couple of West Brom flew at the referee to get involved - something we should have done after the challenge on Baines - and the inevitable red card followed.

Arteta's form is a real problem. He looks scared of making a mistake and rumours keep going round that he's playing on injections. Certainly, he hasn't been the same since missing the game at Spurs with a hamstring problem - is it sorted? Is he narked about something off the pitch? We probably won't find out, and maybe three games out will do him good. Whatever, and however much contact he made with Jara, it was a stupid thing to do with the game in the balance and Everton on top of possession. Another senior player who should know better.

Even with a man down, the chances still came - Beckford in particular had two more at 2-1, which should have brought us level, and both were horribly spurned. He's looked better in his approach play recently, and is getting into goalscoring positions, but those chances need to be taken. Both at Sunderland and on Saturday, missing easy chances have contributed to us losing points. Not good enough.

The game stretched from there and Everton's threat petered out. West Brom replaced Jerome Thomas - who'd given Hibbert a torrid time already - with Somen Tchoyi, who absolutely ripped him to shreds. The big Cameroon winger cut in to score an excellent third, and then contributed in the move which saw Youssuf Mulumbu, possibly West Brom's man of the match, turn in a fourth off Sylvain Distin. In the dying seconds, Mulumbu was harshly sent off for two bookings, but by then those that remained were simply waiting to let the team know what they thought of the 'performance'.

Utter shite. The attitude of some of the players absolutely stinks - Heitinga chief among them - whilst others, like Arteta and Jagielka, are horribly out of form. You have to question, however, some of the manager's decisions also. We've not been at our most fluent at all this season but he did have a team which was picking up points, even if we should have won some more games, like the one away at Blackpool. Why change it then? Why fuck about for the Bolton game? Why drop Coleman (twice) when he's playing well, and Yakubu, who was contributing significantly, the first chance he got, for the dis-interested Saha? Even more worryingly, why have we stopped closing teams down and getting stuck in? There seems to be this perception that we're trying to be like Arsenal - let's stick to being Everton first and foremost, as we're being outfought at every turn at the moment.

We go to Chelsea on Saturday with some really big decisions to make. Hopefully Neville will be back, and Fellaini will go into midfield to add some steel. Surely Jack Rodwell will join him in there, and Coleman will return on the right. If Everton are organised and strong, they can get something from the game - Chelsea showed on Sunday that they're not to be feared at the moment, particularly in midfield. Let's get into them and show a bit of heart - it's always been the bedrock of Moyes' teams - we need it back.

calcioEFC