Everton 1-1 Chelsea

A fantastic performance from Everton today, holding Champions Chelsea to a 1-1 draw. We were bright, and positive, with Duncan Ferguson and James Beattie starting up front.
We restricted Chelsea to few chances - their goal coming from an undefendable stroke of Frank Lampard genius - and battled throughout. The penalty was the right decision, despatched with confidence, and we could have had another when Terry handled late on.

To get something out of this game was massive, and Beattie getting a goal is overdue and necessary if we are to start climbing the league. I've not grumbled about injuries during our winless streak, but consider this: Since the start of the season we've been without our best central defender, our two left-backs, our main goalscorer, our best attacking midfielder, and our "engine" has spent most of the last few months on long haul flights to Australia and back...

Imagine Arsenal, Man Utd or Chelsea missing similarly important players: no Terry, Del Horno, Bridge, Lampard, Robbin/Duff, Drogba.
Today Hibbert, Arteta and Beattie were all making appearances after injury and therefore below-par, and all of our substitutions were the result of players having to come off (Valente, Cahill and Ferguson).
My point is that we've not been awful this season - we still know how to make goals count - but are struggling to get that first goal. With Cahill, Arteta, Beattie and Van Der Meyde fit and available we'll look like a different team.

Did you know?

Since the Premiership began the top team have played bottom just 15 times.