Source: Liverpool_Echo
Everton 3, Blackburn 0: Magnificent seven days at Goodison Park
STOMACH-churning low one week, euphoric high the next – everybody take a ticket to board the Everton rollercoaster.
Seven short days ago, the Evertonian world was a bleak place to inhabit following a poor second-half performance at Craven Cottage which resulted in David Moyes’ team finding themselves ensconced in the bottom three.
How things have changed; two goal-laden displays against AEK Athens and Blackburn Rovers later, optimism has been restored, the Premier League table makes for much better reading and a campaign which has stuttered and spluttered now appears to be blooming.
True, it has been Everton’s good fortune to be presented with two glorious opportunities on home soil. Had they faced Benfica and, say, Chelsea after Fulham the situation might still be bleak – but they could do no more than win their games emphatically.
The challenge now, then, is to maintain this current upward curve and Moyes will certainly be looking at the fixtures that must be fulfilled between now and the next international break as a chance to make some headway.
But, sadly, it would be wrong to expect their opponents in the coming weeks to defend as poorly as Blackburn did yesterday – take no notice of Sam Allardyce’s bizarre post match suggestion that they could have had something to show for their efforts with more luck.
Games against sides managed by Allardyce are usually as attractive as a creature from a Tolkien novel, the result of him cramming his starting line-up with strapping individuals who could stand toe-to-toe with the Orcs who wreak havoc in The Lord Of The Rings.
Those days, however, when Everton relied heavily on strength and endeavour to combat the rough and tumble from countless set pieces are a thing of the past: finesse rather than force is now the preferred weapon of choice at Goodison Park.
