Everton 3, Sunderland 0: Toffess strike the right note for new year

Dec 29 2008 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

WELL it was never going to be 7-1 again was it? David Moyes had that rare species called strikers at his disposal last year when Everton racked up their biggest league win for 11 years over Sunderland.

But it’s precisely how Everton have performed without centre-forwards that has given the manager every reason to believe that his team’s form in December will set the tone for a very prosperous new year.

The absence of all four recognised senior front men has coincided with their most consistent period of the season. It’s now 13 points from 18 available since the depressing loss to Wigan, with a third win in four games against the Black Cats cementing their top-six place.

They may not have the firepower but they’ve definitely got something fuelling their engines.

Mikel Arteta certainly had a few doses of it yesterday, as he doubled his tally for the season by using his famous powers of improvisation on two first half free-kicks to send his side on their way to only a second home win of the season.

It was sealed by a player who had only played senior football for Plymouth before Christmas, substitute Dan Gosling. And a sobering thought for anyone who feels each year passes quicker than the last – he was born in 1990.

In terms of this year, at least the home fans can finish 2008 on a high – except perhaps the ones who missed Arteta’s goal because they thought it was a 3pm kick-off.

Everton’s belated arrival as a force to be reckoned with this season is, however, being perfectly timed. And although the return of short-term injury victims Louis Saha and Victor Anichebe, who returned from the bench yesterday, will be welcome, it’s more for the benefit of the size of a squad well set for a third successive European qualification, rather than the make-up of the team.

Two weeks ago, playing Tim Cahill as a lone striker seemed one makeshift measure too far, even for Moyes during this troubled past few months.

But now, it’s not only Cahill’s two winners at Manchester City and Middlesbrough that make the tactic seem a stroke of genius – although Moyes would have to admit that this particular one has been thrust upon him.

The players have responded superbly to the adversity and many, including Arteta, are beginning to thrive in the winning formula they have hit upon.

The quality of the football played by the front six could well have brought three points against Chelsea but there was never any doubt that struggling Sunderland would always succumb, even against a team for whom victory still merely equalled their fewest number of home wins in a season before December 31.

So yes, the opposition was inept – they had Nosworthy but nothing noteworthy – but it was still encouraging to see Everton have little trouble in completing the sort of task that has underpinned their recent forays into Europe.

Namely, brushing aside visitors to Goodison with the ease that their respective positions in the Premier League demands.

And given the struggles they have had in doing that so far, nobody was going to quibble about a failure to repeat last year’s seven-goal spanking, even after such a vibrant start.

That famous afternoon marked Ricky Sbragia’s first game under Roy Keane after moving from Bolton – and glutton for punishment that he is, he marked another trip to Goodison to kick off his spell as their new permanent manager.

And the Scot must have feared the worst when Everton took even less time to take the lead than they did in last November’s mauling.

Leon Osman, who was back in for Gosling after recovering from John Terry’s red-card tackle last Monday, was brought down by Kieran Richardson 25 yards from goal.

Arteta only had one penalty to his name since he scored with a free-kick against Blackburn on the opening day of the season, but given another dead ball to line up, he looked anything but a player struggling for goals, such was the confidence in his run-up.

And although the members of the Sunderland wall were scattered like pine needles in January, nothing should detract from the stunning power and swerve of Arteta’s shot.

It was exactly what has been lacking at Goodison all season – an early goal.

The only previous time they had scored first in the league at home during this campaign was also against north east opposition in Newcastle, and the fact that Everton went two up that day and still failed to win sums up the anguish the home faithful have suffered.

But when Arteta struck again via another free-kick, this was one 2-0 lead that Everton were destined not to surrender.

The second goal could have arrived earlier when Danny Collins inexplicably tried to dribble round his own goalkeeper Marton Fulop before Richardson rescued him with Marouane Fellaini ready to pounce.

However, it only took until the 27th minute for the lead to be doubled as Arteta benefited from a huge slice of luck for his next set-piece trick.

This time his initial shot hammered the wall but it bounced straight back to the Spaniard, who volleyed low into the net as Fulop was wrong-footed by a deflection off Teemu Tainio.

A fine piece of pinball – and although Arteta’s usual wizardry has been somewhat lacking this season, some of the spells he has cast in December suggest the magic is coming back.

Which, incidentally, is something Sunderland never looked like doing yesterday. Kenwyne Jones’s header was wayward when his side was still just a goal down but that summed up the lack of quality they had in the final third.

The home defence, tweaked recently to account for Joseph Yobo’s absence and Phil Neville’s advance into midfield, remained as resolute as they have for much of the past couple of months, with Tim Howard forced into just the one save from Carlos Edwards.

The comfort of the two-goal lead inevitably took some of the urgency out of the Everton game and they dipped in the second half, one supporter informing them he was “falling asleep here.”

But it’s time to wake up. Everton have got themselves into a position few thought possible at the end of the last transfer window and storming to their biggest victory of the campaign ensures that the next one, opening in three days, won’t be anything like as traumatic.

Certainly not with reserves like Gosling to call on. He followed up his promising display at Middlesbrough by sliding in Joleon Lescott’s low cross with seven minutes left.

If that was an unexpected scorer, Neville almost continued the theme by firing inches over from 30 yards soon after in a rousing finish.

All of which leaves Moyes with a renewed optimism and well it might.

Yesterday he completed a calendar year haul of 64 points, Everton’s highest since 1987, the last year in which they won the title.

And yet, most fans sign off for the year hoping 2009 will be even better – the criteria for a happy new year here has clearly never been stricter.