THERE’S something faintly depressing about any news story that mentions ‘a group has been set up on Facebook’.

Given the ease of setting one up, they really carry very little weight in the ‘real world’. If they do then CJ off Eggheads really needs to watch his back – there are three devoted to nothing more than hatred of the odd-looking quiz panellist.

That said, the recent ‘revelation’ that one such group has been established to advocate Landon Donovan remaining at Everton beyond his present loan spell does illustrate (rather lazily) the impact that the American has made at Goodison.

His direct running style has given Everton another dimension and it’s no coincidence that the Blues have begun to terrorise the defences of the country’s best sides since they have had an injection of genuine pace. Combine that with the ball-players packing the midfield and a centre-forward whose all-round game compares with the very best around, and perhaps it should come as little surprise that David Moyes’s men are the best side in the country at the moment.

That’s not something we get to say very often, but the results against the very top oppostion, and more to the point, the style in which they have been achieved, speak for themselves. Manchester United were the latest of the elite to look distinctly second-best against the Toffees, to the extent that even that curmudgeon extraordinaire, Sir Alex Ferguson, admitted to being ‘well beaten’.

There were plaudits for every player in blue on Saturday, but those watching with actual eyes in their head and sense in their brain – so not Dion Dublin then – noted it was Leon Osman more than anyone else who was central to everything that Everton did.

There have been recurring question marks about the little schemer over the years, mainly because of his lack of physical presence, but operating in central midfield and making up a latter-day holy trinity with Steven Pienaar and Mikel Arteta, he is almost the embodiment of a ‘proper’ Everton player and an absolute joy to watch.