Defeat is bitter, but, it is made even worse when David Moyes’ men forget to turn up for a second half of a match, resulting in a 4-1 defeat to Arsenal.
 
David Moyes laid out his team in a defensive way; with Phil Neville moving to central midfield, and Tony Hibbert moving to right back, to replace the injured Dane Thomas Gravesen. Everton started the match brightly, and closed down every Arsenal attack within seconds of them getting the ball. Everton continued to press the Arsenal defence with several shots on goal in the first ten minutes.
 
The pressure paid off when after seventeen minutes Tim Cahill hit the mark from a Mikel Arteta corner, which, was a fair score line. The pressure continued until 40 minutes when Arsenal started to gain a foothold in the game. The Half Time whistle couldn’t have come soon enough for the Blues who went into the break 1-0 up, which was fully deserved.
  
Disaster struck for Everton after only 90 seconds into the second half; when Eduardo latched on to a 70 yard long ball from Manuel Almunia, which he cooly slotted into Tim Howard’s bottom corner, after poor defending from Joey Yobo. And then, the flood gates opened. Instead of Everton piling the pressure on Arsenal like they did in the first half, they sat back, and seemed to play for the draw, which, is not a sensible thing to do when you are playing the now league leaders. Eduardo then slotted again from close range past a desperate Tim Howard, which was again due to an uncommon long ball played by Arsenal. At 2-1, you would expect Everton to take their chances, but no, the Yak failed to convert a free header from a stunning cross from Lescott from only 6 yards out.
 
Arsenal then suffered a horrendous blow. Nick Bendtner was sent off for a second bookable offence after a horror tackle on Andy Johnson, who had come on moments earlier; and Arsenal were down to ten men. But Everton failed to take advantage of the extra man and, just like London buses, yet another goal came, an Everton were 3-1 down. Another long ball confused both Tim Howard and Joey Yobo, both of whom failed to clear the ball, and it was leave to Adebayor to run the ball into the back of the net.
 
Mikel Arteta was then sent off for an elbow to the face of, I suspect, former best friend Cesc Fabregas, who rolled around like he had been stabbed, pathetic. The sending off means our talisman will miss the next three games, away at ‘Boro, at home to Oldham in the FA Cup, and, most importantly, he will miss the away leg of Leage Cup Semi-Final away at Chelsea.
 
Thomas Rosicky then completed the scoring with a low drive into the bottom corner in the 92nd minute, which could give Arsenal valuable goal difference come the end of the season.
 
After great success bar one defeat in the last 15 games, Everton came unstuck against a lacklustre Arsenal side. Although Everton played the better chances, they failed to get shots on goal and suffered the consequences. Let’s hope that Moyes can get some early day January transfers done, with Osman, Gravesen, Arteta and Pienaar (ACON) out of action, Moyes is going to get a couple of quality midfielders.
 
Everton manager David Moyes: “What impressed me was the way we played. I thought we played very well and I thought we were better than Arsenal. It’s incredible we’ve lost 4-1. We gave Arsenal a really tough game and I thought the better team lost. It was Everton who passed the ball and tried to score good goals and it was Arsenal who scored off long balls.”
 
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger explains his decision to rest Emmanuel Adebayor and Tomas Rosicky: “It was a slight gamble because they are two important players. They gave a lot at Portsmouth on Boxing Day and needed a breather. We were too nervous and they didn’t play enough. Everton made a battle of it and won most of the duels.”