VIEW FROM THE BLUE

The Road to Nowhere

Stoke City 2-0 Everton

With just four wins all season, Everton came into the New Year clinging to the optimism provided by a surprise win at Manchester City 12 days earlier and their best run away from home in 25 years, but they trudged off the Britannia Stadium pitch with that record in shreds following a demoralising 2-0 defeat to start 2011.

It was a result and a performance that left the observer with little but an impression that the Blues are on the road to nowhere right now ? although "nowhere" would be preferable to another brush with relegation, a possibility that remains unlikely but possible if confidence continues to ebb away or if Tim Cahill's absence this month proves to be the crucial leg to be pulled from the stool.

Despite largely controlling this game against a workmanlike and unspectacular Stoke City side, Everton failed to force Asmir Begovic in the home goal into a single meaningful save in 90-plus minutes of frustration. That the final stats would show 10 shots for David Moyes's side owes much to the fact that, yet again, the Blues came up against a well-drilled defence willing to throw everything in front of the ball to protect their goalkeeper. A couple of great chances in the first half and a blantant first-minute penalty not awarded by the atrocious Andre Marriner aside, the visitors could find few ways through.

This has been a season dominated by debate amongst Evertonians about the team's striking problems, one that was ratcheted to new heights by Moyes's decision to play Tim Cahill up front on his own against West Ham on Tuesday, and though the manager reverted to using a natural striker in the form of Louis Saha ? and actually ended this game with three of them on the field ? none of them really had a chance to speak of.

And that is nub of Everton's problem right now; though chances have been missed by all three of Saha, Yakubu and Jermaine Beckford they have been starved of service all season and today was no exception. The Frenchman was robbed of a very early chance when the referee refused to award a penalty, mis-kicked a half-chance from a ball over the top of the Stoke defence, and saw two headers blocked by defenders from set-pieces but that was the extent of opportunites provided for Saha before he was substituted in favour of Beckford with 11 minutes to go.

Victor Anichebe also played 24 minutes but apart from a Leighton Baines cross that he half-heartedly tried to flick home, neither he nor Beckford got a sniff of goal and the limp manner in which Everton approached the closing stages betrayed a deeply troubling air of resignation at the team's collective inability to create scoring chances. By then, Mikel Arteta, who'd put in another indifferent performance, had been replaced by the equally ineffective Leon Osman and Marouane Fellaini had been pushed further forward, but he is more stopper than creator. That left a static line of blue shirts strung out at times across the Stoke 18-yard line bunched with the home side's own defensive line and no spark of creativity to break it down.

The over-reliance on crosses from wide left by Baines was again evident but he rarely got to the byline and Stoke mostly dealt well with his service from near the left touchline. Seamus Coleman caused plenty of problems with his running and direct approach on the opposite wing when his teammates deigned to give him the ball, but his final pass didn't usually find a target... probably because Everton never seem to have enough players in the opposition area until they're desperately chasing the game in the final minutes.

Perhaps because they were resigned to their fate and collective ineffectivenss, there was no desperate effort from the players here today and supporters were left with the feeling that Moyes has exhausted the system and personnel with whom he is currently persisting. With little left to lose, he surely must now try something radically different now that he will be without Cahill for up to six weeks... but his track record of conservatism would suggest otherwise.

As ever, the Blues started well enough, passed the ball well enough ? though the recent propensity of the central midfielders to give the ball away continued ? and had a couple of early forays, one that should have yielded that penalty for a foul on Saha and another where Steven Pienaar's tame curler was easily caught by Begovic.

It was the Potters, though, who carved out the first real chance of the game when Kenwyne Jones flicked on Begovic's long punt and Ricardo Fuller found himself with just Tim Howard to beat but he screwed his effort wide from a central position.

Jones himself, though, opened the scoring six minutes later when Matthew Etherington made a monkey of Phil Neville by the touchline and crossed for the striker who rose unchallenged to power a header beyond Howard's despairing reach. 1-0 Stoke but plenty of time for Everton to recover.

They were almost level within three minutes and Cahill will wonder how he didn't notch his tenth goal of the campaign when Baines' deep ball found him free at the back post but he steered his header back across goal and past the post.

Begovic then poleaxed Saha as the pair contested a 50-50 ball on the edge of the Stoke box and was booked for his trouble, but, predictably, Arteta blasted the resulting free kick into the wall. A free kick from the opposite flank by Baines a few minutes later drfited behind before a terrific driving run by the same player ended with Coleman's low cross evading everyone in the box.

Pienaar must have thought he'd put Everton back on level terms in first-half injury time when he finished perhaps the visitors' best move of the match. The South African played a one-two with Saha in the midst of a fast break but Danny Higginbotham got enough on his shot to deflect it agonisingly onto the roof of the net.

Everton's general control of the game continued after half time but they never really got close to scoring, though Coleman was prevented from sprinting away on goal by a cynical foul by Rory Delap and Baines missed by a foot with a trademark free kick with 20 minutes to go.

But the Blues were already 2-0 down by that point, Jones having out-jumped the otherwise excellent Sylvain Distin and Fuller jumping into Phil Jagielka, forcing the defender into shinning the ball off the underside of the bar and into his own net. With the way Everton were playing in the final third, effectively game over.

The result leaves Everton sitting three points above 17th and five above the drop zone but with more questions than answers as to how they're going to recreate the form that made them so impressive in the first half of 2010. With individuals like Fellaini, Arteta and Saha performing so poorly and no money to bring in fresh faces, it's going to take all of Moyes's managerial nous to turn the ship around. It just remains to be seen whether he has the imagination or courage to make big and bold changes.

Player Ratings:
Howard 6, Neville 5 (Osman 6), Jagielka 6, Distin 8, Baines 7, Fellaini 6, Arteta 6 (Anichebe 6), Coleman 7, Pienaar 7, Cahill 7, Saha 7 (Beckford 5)

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