BLUE WATCH: Arteta’s quality can make the difference

Oct 4 2007 by Mark O'Brien, Liverpool Daily Post

EVERTON go into tonight’s game against Metalist Kharkiv requiring a great performance and result if they are to maintain an interest in the UEFA Cup beyond the trip to the Ukraine.

But the good thing is they go into the game on the back of two victories, winning 2-0 against Middlesbrough in the Premiership and beating Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 in the Carling Cup.

As I predicted before the first leg of the tie, Metalist proved to be no pushovers in the 1-1 draw at Goodison.

They have a good balance of seasoned professionals, some with international experience for countries such as Serbia – and two or three good, younger players.

In their last couple of games Everton have scored goals, which will fill them with confidence, but more importantly they go into tonight’s game having kept two consecutive clean sheets, and keeping another one tonight will be crucial if they are to progress.

Prior to the Sheffield Wednesday game you have to go back to last season for the last time they didn’t concede, so to have kept two clean sheets in five days shows they’ve put that statistic behind them.

Everton have built their success over the past two or three seasons on low-scoring victories and not conceding, so the fact that they are back to that sort of form will please manager David Moyes and give the players a great deal of confidence.

The other side of the coin is scoring goals – the three goals against Sheffield Wednesday were of a quality that was out of context with the rest of the game.

They were excellent goals, and together with the goals against Middlesbrough they show that Everton are on their way to solving their scoring problems.

The plus side of the Boro game, though, was the return of Mikel Arteta.

In a game in which the likes of James McFadden, Leighton Baines, Phil Neville and Joleon Lescott all did well, Arteta showed once again that he is Everton’s jewel in the crown.

Everything the Spaniard did oozed quality and class – the weight of his passes, his decision-making, his touch – everything. He remains the man they rely on to unlock the Ukrainians’ defence.