Oh Mikel, where have you been? Its lovely to see you, we've missed you dearly. Arteta shifted out wide by Moyes, terrorised Newcastle all afternoon and picked up almost exactly were he left off after his knee popped out when falling funny in that aerial challenge with arch annoying face Steven ''Lets get on the JaegerBombs eh fellas'' Taylor, almost two years ago to the day. After such a performance and something some sections have been pleading with him to do for months, it does rub a healthy portion of armchair salt into this particular gaping ''I told you so'' wound.
The equaliser came from a break and some great work by Osman and the Basque(good band name that) down the left hand side, Arteta squaring it back to Osman and then the little Alien 3 head having enough time to take a touch and sidefoot it home calmly. Almost as soon as we'd got ourselves level, we found ourselves one up after Leighton Baines swung in a trademark free kick behind Newcastle's defence, which just evaded Beckford but following up was Jagielka who managed to sweep it satisfyingly onto the bar and high into the side netting, which was nice.
From getting themselves in front to the final whistle, Everton had a veritable glut of chances which had they converted any of them(particularly you Saha) would have added a flattering coat of gloss to a nervy performance at times. Newcastles inevitable surge in the second half played right into the hands of our typical smash and grab away performances and in Arteta, to see him receiving the ball out wide on a number of occasions with Newcastle players breathing through their arses to get back and defend, well, lets just say its been too long.
Victor Anichebe and Kev Nolan tickled each others balls a bit for the cameras and fuelled Evertonians growing hatred towards both of them that little bit more. The former being ever so slightly more bizarre than the latter. Anichebes introduction didnt result in a third or even him being dazzling on the ball or anything, what it did do though was inject a willing physical presence into a performance at a critical stage of the proceedings and in the right area of the pitch. Oh and Pardew can fuck off actually. Leon Best's push on Jagielka for their second half ''equaliser'' was as blatent as they come. ''Being smart and backing in'' indeed. Apart from that the archetypal creepy step dad was uncharecteristically complimentary about us post match, which again, was nice.
Whats not all that nice though, is that we find this team pulling Rabbits out of hats at points in campaigns were it leaves you with a sort of empty feeling, like when a Big Mac seems like a cracking idea to quench the hangover demons, but ultimately it just fuels their mental/physical persecution of you, dont get me wrong an Everton win is an Everton win and whether you're in the ale house, St James Park or Outer pissing Mongolia at 4:45 on a Saturday it puts a skip in your step. It'd just be nice to see a Moyes side play like their lives depended on it, not when, well, their lives depend on it.
It'll take a few more results like Saturdays to inject some sort of purpose and direction into this failing season. But i for one wouldnt bet against Moyes in particular making that happen.
Anyway, Up the toffees.
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