Everton manager David Moyes admits he has had to find another way to play to compensate for the reduced creativity affecting his team.
Last January the Toffees lost Steven Pienaar to Tottenham and seven months later had to sell Mikel Arteta to Arsenal after he requested a transfer. Moyes accepts losing that pair may have had a detrimental effect in terms of flair players he has at his disposal but he believes the determination and character of those who remain can make up for other deficiencies.
Nowhere was that more evident than on Saturday when Everton came from behind to beat Wolves 2-1, and Moyes said: "The resilience among the players has always been here. Maybe we weren't quite with the free-flowing football of the past seasons but my job is to find another way of winning."
He added: "We are maybe a little bit like we were in the second or third year after I took over (in 2002) - I thought we looked a bit like that on Saturday. But we had some good years there and we won a lot of good games.
"At the moment we don't quite have the flair and ability to win it the way we have done in recent seasons with the likes of Mikel and Pienaar. But we certainly have a great heartbeat among the players and we will trying to keep digging out a few results."
The victory was Everton's first at home since mid-September and only the second time they had avoided defeat in seven league matches.
That run was against the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea but ahead of them now are teams further down the table, starting with Bolton this weekend.
Against Wolves was only the second time since their win over Wigan on September 17 that Everton had scored more than one goal in a league match. Moyes said it was important for them to do so, even if they did come from a free-kick and a penalty.
"Hopefully confidence does come from Saturday's result but we needed to get a couple of goals for the players to play with confidence," he added.
"We need to take those chances. You can see there was an anxiety at times but that was to be expected because we have hardly won in seven or eight weeks. Defensively we did a sound job because Tim Howard did not make a save on Saturday."
Source: PA
