God hates Everton strikers. This is irrefutable fact. Not only are The Yak and James Vaughan crocked for the rest of the season (if not permanently in Vaughan's case), but its also transpired that Saha has pulled his hamstring during today's game against Spurs and is gonna be out for at least a few weeks. This leaves us second only to Woolworths employees in terms of sheer bad luck and getting royally screwed over just before Christmas. However thats just the way things are, and there's nowt we can do about it so I will try my best not to bang on about it.
I doubt, however, that I would be quite so philosophical about the whole affair had we lost today. While watching the Manchester derby in the pub earlier this afternoon, I was saying to my good friend and fellow toffee Robbie that I would gladly take a draw at White Hart Lane after our abysmal performance against Wigan on Monday. What I didn't count on though was the reappearance of lil' Stevie P, who was effervescent in todays game, and easily our man of the match. He worked hard, covering most of the pitch and brought some much-needed quality to our midfield, something we have sorely lacked since Arteta forgot all the qualities that make him the player he is (was?). Today was also the first post-match interview I've seen featuring young Pienaar, and I was suprised and a little shocked at the bass-laden timbre of his voice. The man has a throat like a subwoofer.
Jags, again, was imperious in defence and has easily been our player of the season so far for me. He reminds me a bit of John Terry, always getting the first touch on dangerous balls into the box and organising our sometimes hapless defence via the gift of shouting loudly. Give this guy the captain's armband, as it is simply going to waste on Neville. Our general play was pretty good all round in fact, with Fellaini looking dangerous and Cahill returning to the form we all know he is capable of.
If there is an upside to our strikers dropping like flies, its that it means we pretty much have no choice but to return to the old 4-5-1 system we've been so fond of the past few seasons, providing we can keep our big midfielders fit. Its now time for Victor Anichebe, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Jose Baxter to step up and start wearing the daddy pants, and they are big pants full of a mess left behind by Yakubu.
All in all, an excellent result for us today but at what cost?