I am absolutely ecstatic for Oviedo... I waited a year and a half to see him get his chance, certain he would step up with quality, and he surpassed my highest expectations. And in words of the great Warren Zevon, his hair was PERFECT. (At least until his mates mussed it up after the goal.)

My MOTM as well.

I must say I was apprehensive about our initial team selection as I thought it a bit lightweight to be tackling a physical Stoke side that had height advantage, but happily I was wrong and Martinez continues to have the midas touch. His team selection was there to be shot down if it failed but he has proved that we have the players who can handle rotation better than before when we had free-bees and academy lads filling our bench. With the glut of games to come we can look ahead with a degree of confidence. December will be a test of where we are and what we can feasibly achieve.

I really hope that Roberto is allowed decent money in January so that he can bolster the squad with a couple of top quality signings to sustain the ambitious push for Europe. The board must invest as this squad is on the verge of success with just a few tweaks and additions.

Unfortunately we will lose at least two of our loan players who have made such a huge contribution to our season so far and with our current injury list we are still short of numbers to get us through the bad weather period. Hopefully we will continue our success through December and come out with just the one defeat that we have suffered so far.

Oviedo played very well. Tougher tests to come.
Pienaar and Osman still have something to offer.
3-5-2 may have its place during a game.
Our finishing needs to be sharpened.
Del Boy will be devastating if he can finish/pick out a pass.
Think we are all surprised by the success of the Barry signing.
Stoke are a pub team. Ridiculous rugby tackle by Whelan, a couple of penalties were in the offing, quite a few fouls missed by the ref.
Shawcross still gets away with every corner. Intelligent to play it short if the refs refuse to deal with it, but a pet hate of mine they get away with it every match.

In Martinez we now have a manager who is clued up with everything, it was a wise move in the end to rest Barkley and Mirallas and it paid dividends.

What a performance from Deulofeu, the boy just runs past players as though they are not there, it's like watching Messi and Maradona! Eventually his consistent end product will improve the greater experience he gets but I tell you one thing, I am damn excited about this Everton team for the remainder of the season.

I thought Oviedo too was a breath of fresh air, doing things that we have not seen Baines do an awful lot of over the last few months, which is getting forward with a sharpness and agressiveness. I also like the fact that he is willing to use his weaker foot, as we seen with the goal and the assist for Lukaku.

Our midfield was also impressive refusing to be outmuscled, something which the wonderful James McCarthy has added to our team along with the forever steadying influence of Gareth Barry. It is down to Barry that we have not missed Darron Gibson one little bit... in fact, I would suggest that, even if Gibbo was fit next week, it would be damn hard for him to dislodge Barry.

My observations - McCarthy and Barry were both impressive in an unobtrusive sort of way - they really win the ball back and keep us ticking over. Pienaar saw lots of the ball and was more impressive than I have seen for some time. A relatively quiet game for Lukaku but it is hard to argue with another goal. Deulofeu is a real talent- he just needs to learn to when to pass/cross and also support his full-back a bit more.

Finally a geeky stat: - I noticed that each of the four goals was notched with the weaker foot of the scorer.

I've also noticed that we almost never score with our heads anymore... except for Lukaku off the corner last week, I can't remember the last one. Big change from previous years.

Ken.

Solid. Now OT on Wednesday - so much to look forward too; firstly, giving the Manx a proper game, Moyes face when we score accompanied with the blues standing & singing in the away end when the stewards have other ideas. Can't fucking wait.