Moyes celebrates 700th game with gutsy win over Brighton

Great 3 points. Terrific defensive display. It's not going to be pretty under Moyes but the huge difference from our former manager is that Moyes will always give us hope of a good result.

With the now long-forgotten previous bloke, there was rarely hope, just a prayer for a miracle and I am a non-believer. Onwards to safety and BMD in the Premier League.

Worried as we are down I think to one striker, Beto, hopefully we will bring in a goal scorer in the window… clock's a-ticking.

The rest of European football closes n the same day at 5-00pm

Having said all that, what on earth is the point of such a ridiculous rule?
Who makes these daft regulations up.
And what is the thinking behind it?
I find it illogical.

Surely, if a team is hit by an injury late on in a game - and there's one unused substitute available on the bench - then he should be permitted to come on; shouldn't he?

I'm bamboozled!

Thanks for that, 9 shopping days to go.

Why do they look knackered after 60? And have to be taken off.

Moyes rolled the dice when he used up his substitution opportunities with 10 minutes left and it paid off.

You are right and I apologise. Silly me!!

And Ed (11)

I see what you're saying - and maybe that is the thinking behind the rule. But, as Darren Griffiths has long been suggesting, why don't we have a separate 'timekeeper'?

Rather than add time on at the end (to make up for stoppages), a timekeeper would merely stop the clock each time play is interrupted. That way – surely – exactly 90 minutes of football would be played?

30 seconds notice to the 4th official and opposition, player off, player on, while game is in progress. Simples, no need for time to be added.

The 5 subs, 3 stoppages was mainly introduced so a manager couldn't intentionally destroy the flow of a game by introducing 5 players at intervals nearing the end of a game.

Yet there are complaints of clubs filling their squads with players.

I've watched sports that go for hours and they suffer as an entertainment product, in my opinion. And the younger generation are even more demanding.

Hence plenty of sports coming up with shortened formats.

Quite the distinctive Italian surname... :)

Ever since Gianluigi (GG) became (very nearly) a household name here in England, I've often been asked that same question. I usually reply – jokingly – by saying that we're cousins!

The truth is that his family and my family come from the same part of Italy, south of Naples. So it's just possible that there could be a link, if you were to go back far enough. I'm third generation English. My great-grandparents (on my father's side) came to England well over 100 years ago.

My dad (he's not with us now) first took me to Goodison in October of 1967. I've been a bluenose since then.

Yes – and although I don't follow the game – American football too? So why not in Association Football?

Having an official time keeper would rule out the guessing game we play, when the fourth official is about to hold up the notice board (with the number of minutes to be added on).

Lindstrom had a quieter game, being given special attention from Brighton after last week's performance. But Everton still had a threat. Calvert-Lewin's hamstring just when he was becoming effective. I would question his training over that.

Everton seem to have defended well, Moyes trying to keep the high press going. I too did not know about the new Premier League rules regarding subs. Moyes seems a lot more effective regarding substitutions.

Two wins… 3 weeks ago, that looked impossible.

Hopefully we can move on from Calvert-Lewin, whose status was built on one decent season… but, in truth, has never performed.

Our defense is quite solid now, but we need cover at the full-back slots and the wings. The primary target in this window must be the striker.

Leicester next… could be nine from three.

Getting booked for imitating a seagull. Fucking brilliant.

Lindstrøm looks like a different player. O'Brien very capable. Young finally being used the right way, coming on late to offer experience, rather than a starter.

The team needs some additions. But you can at least see an uptick in the intent to get something out of a game beyond a point.

Couple of bad injuries but there's
character in this team.

I am a big fan of Mangala and hope that was not his last game for Everton.

His partnership with Gueye gives us control and energy in midfield, a nice contrast to Douc's impression of a dog running round a field looking for its master.

Seems that Pickford had the audacity at the end to wave his arms and fist-pump or beat the badge in front of the North Stand seagulls and they all spat out their chips and became exceedingly enraged. The players reacted accordingly.

This followed the outrageous claim that Ndiaye had been imitating seagulls, flapping his arms in celebration of scoring that excellent penalty.

It was of course nothing of the sort — even though the stupid referee booked him for it — he was doing the famous Blue Liverbird victory swoop — very rarely seen in these parts.

Our Davey is doing exactly what it says on his tin. Yesterday was the perfect example of keeping it tight and pinching one. I can only assume that anyone surprised by his approach must be new to this footy lark. I suspect He will only has to do that three more times to ensure EPL football at the BMD stadium.

Job well done so far Davey boy.

What it did emphasise though, was how short we are in numbers, given even that we have a few missing. You have to have a full squad with back-ups in way of reserves, unless you can avoid injuries (almost impossible). However, what was clearly highlighted today was the urgent need of a striker, just when it looked like DCL had turned the corner, wham, out for the foreseeable !

We are very limited in the striking department, Beto is a willing tryer, but with all due respect to him, not cut out for the Premiership. Just hoping again, that something happens, in more than one area in the window, before it is too late.

I'd've taken off Doucoure instead of Lindstrøm. It would've given us a better option behind Beto.

Another mention for O'Brien. For such a big lad, he has very good close control of the ball. I also like the way he passes – head over the ball. Yes, we have got another good'n.

Up the Blues – and bless them all, the long and the short and the tall. ;)

Are we showing our ages?

The points we had under Dyche's entire tenure were the lowest in the league. Rock bottom. And his fabled defensive stability actually gave us the third-worst goal difference.

We also hadn't produced back-to-back wins once this season.

What on earth makes you think he'd have got anything out of these last two games? Moyes's win from three games ratio is 66% ish. Dyche was 15.8%.

I know stats don't tell the whole truth but there is absolutely nothing suggest that Dyche would have suddenly upped his win ratio by over 50%.

I wasn't exactly mad about Moyes coming back but I understood why the decision was made and so far it has been completely vindicated.

Had Dyche stayed, we would have been relegated.

Yesterday's was a backs-to-the-wall game that Dyche would have played, we won with a penalty goal and no other shots on target throughout the game.

Let's not carried away with those three games. Hopefully we can get the necessary points to keep us up. As Colin says “Well done so far, Davey boy”.

And we have Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton to come at home. It's been a great start.

100% Jim.

I know we are 9 points ahead of Leicester at the moment, but let's keep it that way by tonight and then make it 12 points ahead of them by next Saturday afternoon.

In fact, next weekend could be a pivotal moment in the season. Should we beat Leicester, Wolves lose at home to Villa, and Ipswich lose or draw at home to Southampton, then we could be as many as 10 points clear of the drop; only then can we think about trying to catch those teams above us.

"What on earth makes you think He'd have got anything out of these last two games"

Well, for a start, I think we could have drummed up a team from our street to beat Spurs, the way they defended... and given that we had drawn against three better teams than Brighton in December, I think it's entirely feasible that we could have at least kept a clean sheet yesterday. Using exactly the same 10-behind-the-ball tactics

And despite your claims that we had the third worse goal difference, we were not just always out of the relegation places because we had more points – we had a vastly superior goal difference to those teams in the Bottom 4, despite playing less games.

Let me turn your question on you. Other than blindly pressing the panic button and spouting hypothetical nonsense... What on earth have you seen from the Bottom 4 teams to suggest we 'would' (not 'could') have been relegated under Dyche?

I have said I will support Moyes, but that seemingly isn't enough for you. Tough; I won't be swallowing your ridiculous stats after just three games.

I hope we can beat Leicester, but if you are expecting anything other than one ugly motherfucker of a game, you will be sorely disappointed.

Leopards... Spots!

True, he has dropped Harrison, got better performances from Lindstrøm and integrated O'Brien but, if ever I saw a Dyche performance from Everton, it was yesterday. A 0-0 with the benefit of a controversial (but correctly given) penalty.

The Spurs first half was magnificent but the second was nearly blown. Dyche managed a similar attacking performance against Wolves, remember. Has anything substantially changed? I hope so but it's too early to tell.

Just beat Leicester next Saturday and then things may become a little clearer.

Yes of course the points are the most important things at the moment, I said that in an earlier post.

I was just describing the performances of the two winning games; if you think I was wrong about them, let me know where I was wrong.

It's good to win, but there's still a way to go, so I'm not getting carried away.

We had good hour against Tottenham and the 2nd half took me back a few years. Flashbacks. For the second week running, a sense of relief at the whistle before the outbreak of sustained celebration.

I know your position on Moyes taking over — you just want every Bluenose to get behind the manager and back him in our chase for points I think every Bluenose genuinely wants Everton to do exactly that despite our different opinions of him.

In my case, I hope every fan who was at the Spurs game cheered as long and as loud as I did when those three goals went in!

Best wishes, Danny, as usual.

We really have to adopt the old adage of 'one game at a time' – get the points to make us safe and only then start the process of improving attacking quality and entertainment value.

I have been bored stiff this season in some games but will be happy with winning – for now!!

I much prefer the feelings I am experience at end of the last two weekends compared to those of the past few months. I am not convinced by your certainty that we would have stayed up under Dyche.

As I said before, I think Dyche failed to convince the management that he was capable of keeping us in the Premier League; hence a change had to be made. With the managers available with Premier League experience who would take on the job; they were left with only one choice.

One observation which I noticed yesterday was the sense of fight in the team and enjoying the battle. That is the first ingredient in managing a team; next is putting round pegs in round holes so that each can make a contribution to the team.

Finally we can go to the next phase of creating a vision on how we would like to play, assess what resources you have, who will fit that model, and then recruit to fill the gaps.

Keeping all the round pegs in the round holes of course. But that is for the future. Let's secure our Premier League status first – no matter how we play.

Hope you are wrong about next week against Leicester as I am looking forward to the game.

One observation yesterday was a sense of team and up for the fight. We didn't see this with the previous manager.

If you didn't see that fight at Man City vs Arsenal and against Chelsea (all better teams than Brighton) last month, you couldn't have seen the games.

It's not the fight our team lacks. It's the quality.

So what is your remedy when a manager can't convince the board that he will keep us up?

Leicester leading Spurs at time of posting.

That was another nervous clock-watching session by the way!!!

It is too early to say whether Moyes can develop the team and take on his glass ceiling, which he acknowledged on his first words on his return.

I think that the TFG group have to bring in accountability and measurement for him to stand any chance of doing this.

Wish we could bring in a decent forward and cover in the full back areas over the next week or so.

Encouraging this last week but we’ve had so many false dawns.

Completely agree with all of that Craig, we need to make sure we don’t rest on our laurels for that Leicester game, I don’t think we will but how Everton would that be. We need to approach that game as if it’s the most important of the season. We play our cards right here then I think we could almost be safe by the end of February, 3 winnable games in February on current form and anything can happen at Goodison in the derby.