Everton and their manager David Moyes will be Arsenal’s and Chelsea’s best friends, temporarily at least.
They beat Manchester United with a hard-working and thorough performance. Those wearing blue will be very proud of the result, and here is how each individual performed to help the Toffees to a 3-1 victory:
Goalkeeper: Tim Howard- distribution of the ball was good, but in truth he did not have to make many saves.
Right-back: Phil Neville- did brilliantly to out muscle Wayne Rooney as the former Evertonian was about to score. Sound defensively and continued to provide good width to support Everton’s attacks on the right-hand side.
Centre-back: Johnny Heitinga- commanding performance and won a lot of headers. Did not look tired or get caught out even though he missed the midweek European game.
Centre-back: Sylvain Distin- grew in confidence after a shaky first-half, much better in the second-half.
Left-back: Leighton Baines- great work going forward and his delivery from the left was always testing. Had United right-back Gary Neville on the back foot.
Left-midfield: Landon Donovan- always looked to make something happen and covered a lot of ground. Technically good, and looks like he is proving to be a really worthy loan signing.
Centre-midfield: Steven Pienaar- flashes of brilliance and looked capable of creating a goal. Was probably not at his peak.
Centre-midfield: Leon Osman- was given the task of supporting lone striker Saha and did it well. Good off-the-ball runs and linked well with fellow midfielders.
Centre-midfield: Mikel Arteta- lacked sharpness having only just returned from a long-term injury. Still showed glimpses of his wonderful creativity.
Right-midfield: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov- scored a great 25-yard equaliser and kept the ball moving quickly with one and two touch passing.
Centre-forward: Louis Saha- worked unselfishly and tirelessly up front by himself. Brought the attacking midfielders like Osman and Pienaar in to play with his ability to hold up the ball.
Subs
Dan Gosling- scored the goal to give Everton a 2-1 lead and filled in to the midfield to help his team-mates protect the lead.
Jack Rodwell- came off the bench with only two minutes remaining and scored a great goal, which had an elegant finish about it.
