Everton 1-0 Chelsea – Take it on the Chin

A Little Preamble

It’s been some time hasn’t it?

In fact such is the low key nature of the season so far, one might even be mistaken for it having started. Which it sort of has, and sort of hasn’t. The much maligned international break so early in the season, now a regular feature every year, does beg the question as to why the season starts in August, and why not replace the first two or three weeks of the season with the qualifiers scheduled for September and October? That might serve several purposes, by giving the home international sides the bonus of fit players, might help those players sharpen their match fitness levels and provide a fairly fan unifying opener to the club season. Then once the club season starts it can flow uninterrupted until Christmas. And then have a break. For which a friendly international could be arranged.

I like that idea.

Anyway, the loathsome Saturday evening fixture versus the usually dogged adversaries from the blue side of Liverpool beckoned. Now under the tutelage of Roberto Martinez it afforded the mass television audience the chance to see if he would move Everton away from their recent standards of hard fought, rough and tumble football into something more attractive to watch. For us a return to the ground where Frank Lampard broke the all-time Chelsea scoring record in a win that to all intents and purposes sealed our Champions League place this season.

The Game

Jose Mourinho shuffled the pack giving David Luiz a start at partnering John Terry in the heart of defence, and giving Juan Mata his first start of the season. Interestingly as well we were to see the ‘Marmite’ figure of Samuel Eto’o get a start as well. Renowned goal scorer that he may be, he has directly insulted both Jose and the club in the past. On the logic some of our fans used towards Benitez alleged insults this should mean instant and everlasting hatred and bile spewed towards Eto’o. Even if he rattles in 30 this season. Because had Benitez won every trophy in sight, I’m sure a vociferous element of our fan-base would have continued the hate towards him. Ergo, Eto’o should be hated, but something tells me this won’t be the case. Personally I place him alongside Rudi Voeller and El Hadji Diouf as a spitter, a trait I detest and therefore I’m not an Eto’o advocate. Unless he rattles in 30 this season and then of course under the rule of Football Fan Fickleness I will adore him, to the point where he can freely spit on me.

So, to the game, as usual I will ignore the bollocks of tactics, if you want that then read the papers. The first half was a decent affair, with Chelsea having the best of possession and arguably the chances as well. The side looked relaxed and comfortable but for me underneath there was an arrogance I’m not sure I like. The kind of arrogance that with pride comes before a fall. It didn’t seem to worry the players that the chances were being squandered, in that call it inner belief, or arrogance, they seemed cocksure we would inevitably score. This is football and things don’t quite work like that all the time. Everton, to their credit worked their way into the game refusing to be overawed by our superior possession and more frequent chances. They had a determined Barry working hard for them, and the tricky Jelavic, Naismith and potential wunderkind Barkley urging them on. In defence they had the admirable Distin and Baines doing whatever was needed to frustrate our ‘creative herberts’ (© Dr Blue Bayou). It was decent for both teams but there was also definitely the whiff of post-international break apathy about it. Fourty-four minutes in and I felt the unmistakeable sense of Chelsea paying for squandered chances and sure enough with a minute of extra time being played, 45 seconds of which had expired, Cech inexplicably cleared the ball to Eto’o who missed it, Everton counter attacked, the defence to a man was in disarray and Naismith scored. As untypical a Mourinho defence mistake as it was, it was pretty typical of the past few seasons under any of our previous coaches. Jamie Redknapp immediately blamed Luiz in a typically moronic piece of lazy punditry. You know the type where they find the easy fall guy with a reputation unfairly based on early Premier League performances and then ignore the fantastic season he had last year in order to show he still makes those mistakes. Redknapp is stealing a living as a pundit.

Anyway, the second half went even further under our control with Hazard and his creative compatriots running Everton ragged but failing to spur our strikers into getting anything close to a goal. Eto’o was playing well despite regularly getting caught in possession, but that’s the Premier League pace and he’ll get used to that. After 57 minutes, THO (The Happy One) threw the dice, and played the Shake ‘Em Up gambit by removing Mata and the hapless Schurrle (was Marin as bad as him?… Jury very much out). In their places came Lampard and Oscar. Still we were the better side, still we created chances, most of them of the ‘half’ nature. Still we tried the extra pass instead of a shot. Still we got nowhere. From this Everton continued to grow in confidence. On 69 minutes THO played the Shit or Bust gambit replacing the struggling Cole with Torres. Three at the back and two strikers? Why Mr Ambassador I think you spoil us. A bold move indeed and it showed why I enjoy THO so much as the man in charge. Only people at the top of their game have the confidence and verve to take such gambles. Sadly in this case all it did was give Everton a lift and for 10 minutes they ran us ragged and we struggled to get any worthwhile possession.

Despite all our best efforts it was becoming increasingly obvious this was not to be our day. When the final whistle went you couldn’t help feel we’d just been given a bloody nose, and in some ways deservedly so. In his post-match interview THO was as ever box office, and also spot on. He criticized our inability to score from easy chances, and in one sentence said we didn’t deserve to lose because we were the better team but that because we didn’t score and they did we did deserve to lose. A rather clever way of saying only one statistic really counts. We all know which one. As did Barcelona in 2012 when they outplayed us in defeat. You can have all the possession you want, all the shots you want, all the corners etc… but in the end the points only go the side that scores a bloody goal.

At this point I’d say well done Everton. They played hard and never gave in or crumbled under relentless pressure at times. They don’t appear to be missing Fellaini. And the securing of the experienced Barry was a wise move indeed. In Barkley they have a fantastic talent on their hands. The boy played with all the verve and confidence one might get from getting called up for England. They have our own Lukaku on loan and he will surely get them some goals and gain useful development under Martinez. I didn’t agree that Barry was Man of the Match, for me it was Barkley or Naismith, but either way it was Everton’s night and well deserved in my view.

Summing up, Cole was poor, Mata was way too over eager to prove some points (what exactly is a mystery) and Schurrle looks like he could be our next Sutton. Loads of promise, but very little delivery. On the plus side, Luiz looked close to being fully fit. Mata is patently just off the pace but that will come in time. JT looked his usual committed self and Eto’o lasted the full game and will have learned loads about the furious pace of the Premier League, surely very different from anything he’s experienced before. However, despite Schurrle being the key duffer yesterday it’s hard to pick any other poor performances out.

I would just also point out that for me, the Chelsea Man of the Match was the imperious John Obi Mikel, who did everything Makelele used to do. He broke Everton attacks with aplomb, tackled well, passed well and on that evidence it will be hard to see how he doesn’t feature for a lot of this season. Wonderful stuff and great to see.

Finally, this was a bloody nose that’s all. No poor refereeing to blame, just very poor finishing and something Mourinho acknowledged and will surely be prioritizing going forward. Despite the undoubted presence of bedwetters and gloom mongers on Twitter, great teams sometimes lose games. We’ll play worse and win, we’ll play better and lose. But with this squad, and THO in charge I think a top two finish is still comfortably achievable as we march on to future seasons of near invincibility.

Press Reports

The Observer, Paul Wilson: “Everton gained their first win of the season at the expense of Chelsea, unexpectedly inflicting a first league defeat since José Mourinho’s return to London in a manner that must have had the coach pining for the direct attacking football he once used to advocate. Mourinho for one would not have been expecting to lose here, and the sheer number of talented midfielders at his disposal meant Everton were second best in many areas of the pitch and never exactly comfortably in front. Yet playing with pride and a sense of purpose that supporters were pleased to see has survived from the David Moyes era, Roberto Martínez’s side refused to be overawed and simply made more of their chances. Chelsea created more than enough opportunities without managing to match the home side’s attacking conviction, which by the end, with Goodison rocking noisily as of old, was considerable.”

The Sunday Telegraph, Jason Burt: “Jose Mourinho has accused Chelsea of lacking a “killer instinct”. For such an accusation to come from a manager for whom that quality is a given, it was damning – and one that will reverberate. This could turn out to be a watershed moment for some Chelsea players. “Artistic football without goals is not good,” Mourinho continued after this 1-0 defeat, the first he has ever suffered at Goodison Park. On six previous visits he has gained four wins and two draws but the Happy One was understandably unhappy. He demands efficiency, not fluffiness.”

The Independent on Sunday, Tim Rich: “Mourinho is the ultimate managerial celebrity and he would argue that this was both a game Chelsea should have won and that, once they were behind, he tried everything in his power to drag them level – an early double substitution and then the gamble of replacing Ashley Cole with Fernando Torres. He moaned: “If they don’t have a killer instinct, then they will have to get one. When you have an easy match in which to score goals, then you have to score them. Before they scored, we had easy chances.””

The Official Chelsea FC Website: “Everton’s Steven Naismith scored the only goal of the game as we suffered a first Premier League defeat of the season at Goodison Park. On a disappointing evening on Merseyside, we were unable to recover from falling behind right on the stroke of half-time, and though we began the second half brightly, we struggled to find a route back into the game.”

Goal Video

45′ Naismith 1-0
Match of the Day highlights




There are 37 comments

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  1. Old Blue

    Conveniently leaves out the fact that Luiz should have been red-carded as the last man for hauling down Mirallas (Terry wouldn’t have caught Mirallas on his way to goal – he was nowhere near him), and Mikel was lucky not to get a second yellow when he brought down Barkley just outside the area near the end. And also leaves out the fact that Baines hit the bar. Also conveniently leaves out any mention of the Daily Mirror, wherein their information states: Everton shots on target-7; Chelski shots on target-1; Everton shots off target-10; Chelski shots off target-0; Everton shots blocked-6, Chelski shots blocked-4. Get real. You were beaten by a more committed team, and got the benefit of some very lenient Howard Webb decisions (although he wasn’t conned by the dying diving swan routine of Oscar). What a load of biased crap from an arrogant Chelski fan…

    • GrocerJack

      You arrogant cunt. This is a Chelsea blog not a fucking Everton site. I gave you due credit and you come here with fuckwittery like that?. A red card when he pulled him down in your half? Fuck off you joker, in no way can that be construed as a direct goal opportunity from there.

      • Old Blue

        Your site comes up under the ‘newsnow’ website for both teams, so what’s your problem? Don’t like someone disagreeing with you…?

        You didn’t give due credit, you said this, for example: “…the second half went even further under our control control with Hazard and his creative compatriots running Everton ragged …” What game were you watching yesterday? Running Everton ragged? It’s called defending when you have to.

        As for the Mirallas/Luiz incident, if you know your football, and the attendant rules as presently in force, they simple state, in so many words, denying a goalscoring opportunity. Chelsea were on the attack when the ball was played out to Mirallas on the halfway line. Luiz and Terry were several yards apart, around 10. Had Luiz not fouled Mirallas, Mirallas would have been in on Peter Cech. Don’t get me wrong, had the position been reversed, I would have wanted the Everton defender to do the same, in the expectation of a red card. Luiz got lucky and possibly prevented a 2-0 scoreline.

        As for Chelsea, I felt Mata had a good game and looked capable, together with Hazard, of opening us up, but I felt that other players around those two were not reading what they were trying to create sometimes. I would have started with Lampard, as he seems to have scored against us for fun all through his career.

        I still think Chelsea will win the title this season for the following reasons:
        Man Ure with Moyes will not be the same force they were with Ferguson;
        Man City will not be the force they have been in recent seasons – they may struggle to finish top four;
        Arsenal will not suddenly leap to title contenders with one big name signing – their defence is too brittle;
        Spurs without Bale will not be the same this season – no chance of top spot;

        The Red Shite (the other half of the city) are still in no position to challenge for top spot.

        So, if you’re a betting man, stick a few quid on Chelsea winning the title this season. A safe bet as far as I am concerned.

        I will refrain from commenting on your calling me a cunt, allegation of fuckwittery, and telling me to fuck off. Happy for it to remain an exchange of views, not name-calling.

        • Cunningplan

          So this paragraph in the report isn’t giving Everton praise?…..

          At this point I’d say well done Everton. They played hard and never gave
          in or crumbled under relentless pressure at times. They don’t appear to
          be missing Fellaini. And the securing of the experienced Barry was a
          wise move indeed. In Barkley they have a fantastic talent on their
          hands. The boy played with all the verve and confidence one might get
          from getting called up for England. They have our own Lukaku on loan and
          he will surely get them some goals and gain useful development under
          Martinez. I didn’t agree that Barry was Man of the Match, for me it was
          Barkley or Naismith, but either way it was Everton’s night and well
          deserved in my view.

          The last man nonsense is just that… there is nothing in the rules about the last man. The red card is for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity, the rules then list a number of factors that the ref should take into account, two of which are the distance of the attacking player from the goal and the number of defenders in close proximity.

          • Old Blue

            Yeah, credit to some degree, tempered by this which I have already posted: “…the second half went even further under our control control with
            Hazard and his creative compatriots running Everton ragged …” What
            game were you watching yesterday? Running Everton ragged? It’s called
            defending when you have to.

            And if you don’t think Mirallas had a goalscoring opportunity, go check out his goal against Sunderland at home last season, when he got past a defender on the half way line and scored the only goal of the game. It’s simply a matter of the individual situation, and yesterday Luiz was left for dead and Terry was nowhere.

          • Cunningplan

            I’m not denying a player can’t run half the length of the pitch and score, Torres did it against Barcelona. But the judgement call by Webb for a yellow was a reasonable one, but it looks like we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.

            Just noticed you thought Mata had a good game yesterday, just shows how fans see things differently, because I thought he was quite subdued and a little off the pace by his standards.

          • Old Blue

            For me, Mata is a great player, and he was the one player yesterday who I felt was going to open us up. Hazard was industrious, Ramires worked hard, Mikel I felt was the one off the pace yesterday. With Mata, Oscar, and Lampard running at our back four from the off yesterday, I feel sure you would have netted at least once, probably a couple of times, in the first half. I think we got out of jail as far as Chelsea’s team selection was concerned.

            Having said the above, I think Osman is past his best now, and I would have wanted to see the young lad Deloufeu we have on loan from Barcelona making a start. He’s supposed to be the next Barcelona ‘wunderkid’, getting playing time that he would not get at his parent club. He’ll get his share of time this season, but Osman now scares the shit out of me. The number of times he gave the ball away yesterday was frightening!

          • Cunningplan

            A few of your players lost the ball easily yesterday, but I put part of that down to Martinez and his style of play, (it will take your players time to adjust), and JM has got our lot to press high up the pitch forcing the mistakes.

            I think you’ll finish reasonably high up the table from what i saw yesterday, and hopefully Martinez will make Lukaku a more polished article.
            Just beat the red side when you play them this season, the pleasure of beating them surely has to be better than beating us. 😉

          • Old Blue

            Yeah, last season it was lump it up the pitch too many times under Moyes. I do think Martinez will make us a better team, particularly with his wise forays into the transfer/loan market.

            I see no reason why we can’t achieve 6th again, perhaps a little better.

            The pleasure of beating the Red Shite is something else. I was at Wembley in ’86 when we lost 3-1 to them in the Cup Final, and I saw grown men in the Everton end sitting on the terraces at full time crying uncontrollably. That’s how much it means…

        • GrocerJack

          Which is a far better answer than your first one, something with a semblance of argument. I could have said conveniently missed my gushing praise of Barkley, my praise of Everton in general, of Martinez etc….why you felt the need to come on here and accuse me, a chelsea fan, on a Chelsea site of bias, when fairly obviously that will be the case is beyond me. I rarely call anyone a cunt, but to attack me for a balanced piece in which I saw that view of the game and gave fulsome praise to a side I quite like (I too detest the red side of the city) and a defeat which as the title suggests most of us have taken on the chin as the right result. No more name calling, just an exchange of views. Fine, just perhaps next time you could read the article, apply some common sense and authors advocacy and then come and constructively debate the article and views therein.

          • Old Blue

            The first thing is, Tony, that we all suffer from bias, myself included. Perhaps I was too stinging in my first comment, but I thought it gave obvious, easy, credit (Barkley), and wrote down Everton’s victory at the expense of criticising your own team. Believe me, I was sitting shitting myself for 94 minutes yesterday! But you see, I see it as the right result for Evertonians (obviously), but I would say most neutral observers would say that Chelsea deserved at least a point. But as I said in so many words in another reply to you, you take your foot off the gas against another Prem team, and they’ll likely bit you on the arse. And then the way back into the game is tough.

            I did read the article fully, and certainly applied author’s advocacy.

        • Der_Kaiser

          Some fair points, but an incorrect reading of the rule book. Luiz did not deny an obvious (key word) goalscoring opportunity; the incident took place too far from goal for it to be a red. Terry’s red card at Man City a few years back being case in point – rescinded in very similar circumstances.

          • Old Blue

            I remember Terry’s red card a few years ago in similar circumstances. I was surprised when that red card was rescinded, because I felt it came within the ambit of ‘serious foul play’, as well as peventing the opponent from breaking clear on goal..

            Distance from goal is not the overriding consideration. And I would suggest that Luiz’s foul did deny a goalscoring opportunity (see my other comment regarding Mirallas running from the halfway line last season to score against Sunderland.

            And in connection with the issue, did you see Atkinson’s abysmal performance in the Sunderland/Arsenal game yesterday? I can well understand why Di Canio got in a real snot with him! Altidore got free of a rugby challenge by Sagna, advanced, and put the ball over the line. Atkinson blew too early and did not let play develop. BUT, and it’s a big but, he had everything before him. It was a goalscoring opportunity, because the guy ‘scored’ after the foul, Atkinson could clearly see that. He gives a foul which, in effect, prevented a goal. Foul prevents goal = prevents goalscoring opportunity = red card. Had Atkinson allowed play to develop for some seconds before calling play back for the foul, it would have been 2-2, and the remainder of the game would have developed in a completely different direction. Unfortunately, as we all know, referees regularly make such major cock-ups.

          • Der_Kaiser

            I’d take a look at the definitions of serious foul play and denial of an OBVIOUS goalscoring opportunity – Law 12, Part 2; your understanding of them is wildly inaccurate to say the least.

          • Old Blue

            So what is inaccurate about understanding this:

            “… • serious foul play
            • violent conduct
            • spitting at an opponent or any other person
            • denying the opposing team a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball (this does not apply to a goalkeeper within his own penalty area)
            • denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving
            towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a
            penalty kick…”
            Nowhere does it give a distance or measurement from goal.

            I would respectfully suggest that YOU take a look at the definitions, as I believe your interpretation is skewed.

            And as I posted previously in this blog, go take a look on Youtube at Mirallas’s goal against Sunderland last season to see how far away from goal a goalscoring opportunity begins.

            Gruss, Kaiser

          • Der_Kaiser

            Respectfully, your original point also mentions the words ‘last man’ which do not appear anywhere in respect of Law 12 or the interpretation of it. Mirallas’s goal against Sunderland has absolutely no bearing on matters at all – you are using it to support your point, and wrongly so.

            It was the correct decision. Luiz did not prevent an obvious – and that is the key word – goalscoring opportunity; 70 yards from goal in the attacking player’s own half does not constitute ‘obvious’ by any stretch of the imagination. Cynical, yes, but a red card? Not in a million years. Ask any referee and they will tell you as much.

          • Old Blue

            I believe your answer, including what you have quoted, has reinforced my point totally.

            First of all, the Mirallas goal against Sunderland shows that a goalscoring opportunity does not only exist in and around the penalty area.

            Secondly, you ignore the fact that with nearly the whole of the Chelsea team pressing in the Everton half, when the pass was made to Mirallas, the only player with any capability of stopping Mirallas going in on goal was Luiz. Therein lies the crux of the matter.

            Off the back of the second point above springs the quote you have given regarding the direction of play, location, etc. (I won’t replicate it all here for the sake of brevity. What you have quoted is fulfilled in its entirity with regard to the Mirallas/Luiz incident.

            I think we will agree to disagree, almost certainly because of our respective biases towards our teams. But I will say it has been an interesting discussion, and the next time I’m watching a game when that kind of incident happens (not just an Everton game), I’ll think back to our discussion and what we have both commented on about this scenario, and weigh it up with this chat in mind.

            And I still think that Chelsea will win the title this season, and hope they do.

    • Cunningplan

      Also conveniently he left out the fact that Barry committed a series
      of professional fouls (just like he did for City) without him getting a
      yellow card. Also the blatant penalty that Oscar should have had for the
      double team tackle on him, but you lost any credibility by quoting stats from that comic the Daily Mirror.

      May I suggest you go home and swallow a whole set of scrabble tiles, you can then take a laxative and crap them all out to see what random words the letters form. I can
      assure you they’ll make more fucking sense than the crap you’ve just
      spouted on here!

      • Old Blue

        So you don’t think that hard tackles be allowed, eh? Barry didn’t commit professional fouls. The only one who did that in the game was Luiz.

        And if you watched the replays of the Oscar incident, you’ll see that Distin got first touch on the ball, and then Oscar dived between the two Everton players. And it was outside the area. The Daily Mirror got the stats wrong by saying there were no ‘shots’ off target for Chelsea, as one would construe Eto’o’s header early in the game as a ‘shot’, and also the effort into the side netting by one of your new players in the second half.

        Seems you can’t take defeat. I suggest you adopt your own suggestion about those scrabble tiles.

    • Austin Solari

      I never ever bother wasting my time replying to stupid fukking posts like this one BUT today I will simply because I have never seen so much shit especially after Tony, quite rightly, gave praise where praise was due to Everton! I thought Barkley had a stormer and was pleased to read yesterdays BBC website gossip column that we, in fact, had scouts at the game yesterday checking up on this young lad. I fukking hope we sneak in at Xmas and take him off you now because he is a star in the making.
      I also don’t know where the Mirror gets it’s stats from but they are hopelessly wrong. I definetly saw on the TV screen a box come up during the first half where it said Everton had had ONE shot on target and we had had seven. Maybe Sky tell lies, I don’t know. They must do as Jamie Redknapp was adamant that Oscar had got to the ball first before Distin.

      • Old Blue

        1. Barkley does appear to be a special talent. We will have a problem holding on to him. The problem for the top English clubs is that teams like Real Madrid & Barcelona will probably be the stalking horses, and could almost certainly offer more in transfer fee & wages than any of the top English clubs.

        There is the famous quote of ‘There are lies, damn lies, and statistics’. The mirror and Sky are sometimes all over the place, and I have admitted as much with my comment lower down to Tony. An example: Jelavic had a header direct at Cech in the first half, as well as the goal.

        As I said to Tony lower down, I think Chelsea will win the title this season because they have the best squad, the best Manager, and the best team. I suspect Mourinho went ballistic with them behind the scenes yesterday, as they appeared too casual at times, and you can’t do that against a team at home who finished sixth last season. Even against lower half teams, you slacken off and they will surely bite your arse! We’ve all seen it time and time again.

  2. Blue_MikeL

    Well just to repeat after the THO: “If they don’t have a killer instinct, then they will have to get one. When you have an easy match in which to score goals, then you have to score them. Before they scored, we had easy chances.”
    We are continuing to be striker-less 🙁
    Mata is a slow starter, remember the last season at the beginning of which he has asked for vacation because of playing European championship during the summer. This year it was Mickey Mouse Confederations Cup and he yet again didn’t have proper rest. Eto’s is not fit enough after the pedestrian Russian league. Willian was overwhelmed by our training intensity after Russian “lazy bum” sessions. We we were better in possession but we never looked 100% scoring 🙁

  3. limetreebower

    Very good summary of what I saw, Tony — I only watched the first half but I thought we looked mostly pretty sharp and fluid. As, to be fair, did Everton — I was impressed by them. I’ve always liked Martinez and I hope he’s allowed a good long stint with a relatively “big” club.

    It seems like the sort of game we could have won on another day. Fair enough. The difference from some of the witlessly turgid confusion of last season (e.g. final of Europa Thingy) is already very striking.

    We’ll be fine.

    God, but some English football fans are tiresome. (I speak as an Englishman.) All this fetishising of “commitment”, as if red-faced saliva-flecked horny-handed witlessness were the highest of all the virtues. I suggest the “Old Blue” neck a bottle or two of “Old Claret” and go dahn sarf to watch the Big Sam ‘n Andy Carroll show at Upton Park if that’s what rocks his boat. Everton played thoughtful tidy intelligent technical football. I don’t think the referee whistled for a free kick until about the 20th minute. Still, if some people want to think they’re watching “committed” football, they can always have fun following the national side.

  4. Cunningplan

    Amid all the initial angst with Old Blue…. I forgot to mention good report Tony.

    Football is a simple game really, and if you don’t take your chances and put the ball in the net, then you get what you deserve.

    • GrocerJack

      i believe my cap should be doffed duly in your direction sir. I’m assuming you’re the Clive that has so kindly contributed to my moment of lunacy 🙂

      • Cunningplan

        Your assumption is correct and it should be me doffing my cap Tony, but surely it would be easier if were allowed to drive? 😉

  5. bluebayou

    A good read as ever Big T. I didn’t really have time to quibble with you on the Podcast last night about your Schurrle comments, which I thought were a tad harsh, (oh gawd where do I find an umlaut on this keyboard? Better ask a gooner…..).

    This summarises my impression of him better than any verbal wandering I might engage in. It’s from the Plains of Almeria site

    http://plainsofalmeria.co.uk/2013/09/16/notes-on-schurrle/

  6. bluebayou

    It’s the equivalent of poking a big, sharp dog shit encrusted stick into a gaping wound in your chest cavity but there’s a decent pictorial breakdown of THAT GOAL conceded on Saturday…from the We Ain’t Got No History website.

    http://www.weaintgotnohistory.com/2013/9/16/4734602/everton-vs-chelsea-naismith-goal-analysis

    Note: In a note under the 7th image, the writer makes a reference to Mata, based on the flaring on the camera lens making him appear to be spontaneously combusting, leading to his removal in the 2nd half. Try to avoid the mistake made by more than one commenter of assuming this is the writer’s real view. It has all the hallmarks of being humour, and quite amusing at that.


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