SOMETIMES when you suffer a temporary setback you’ve got to look at the bigger picture and Lars Jacobsen knows that more than most.
Injury problems followed by a fight to win his place in the Everton side ensured the Danish right-back had to wait seven months after signing before he made his debut but he could now end up playing in Everton’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
Just maybe he might even dream of being part of an FA Cup-winning side and what a fairytale that would be.
Why not? – he is after all from the land of Hans Christian Andersen.
Everton too must look to the bigger picture.
Defeat ensured that Portsmouth recorded their first league ‘double’ over Everton since February 1956 – the month that Norma Jeane Mortenson changed her name to Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley entered the US charts for the first time with ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ but despite this one-off result, Pompey fans will still be casting an envious eye on the stability and league position of the Goodison Park outfit.
You can lose the odd battle but still win the war.
It would be unfair and inaccurate to suggest that Portsmouth wanted this more than Everton – you can be sure that will never be the case when talking about a David Moyes team – but they probably needed it more.
Everton have had a few sticky ends to the season under the Scot’s stewardship but it would take an almighty slump for them to throw away the chance of securing a third successive European qualification this season given their current place.
Before Saturday they had lost just once in their previous 18 matches – and that came via a penalty at Old Trafford.
Repeat that kind of run between now and the end of the campaign and they might even be in with a shot of sneaking a Champions League spot.
So much has changed for both Everton and Portsmouth since Jacobsen’s arrival.
When the right-back was named among David Moyes’s substitutes for the corresponding fixture at Goodison Park back on August 30, the Scot’s first signing of a traumatic summer presumably hoping that his Premier League bow would be imminent.
Back then as Everton slumped to a second successive home defeat, conceding three times in both games, it looked like FA Cup holders Portsmouth would be the side who would build on their European qualification and that Moyes’s men would struggle but this game apart the tables have certainly turned.
The Hampshire club are now on their third manager of the season and after offloading star turns such as Lassana Diarra and Jermain Defoe in the January transfer window, are fighting for their Premier League lives.
In the build up to this match, Moyes suggested that Pompey’s boom and bust fortunes were because they could not sustain their growth whereas as his own side’s evolution had been done gradually on a more level footing.
While this was a bad day at the office for Everton, Portsmouth are sweating just to keep the firm trading.
With the injuries continuing to bite at Finch Farm it eventually took a hamstring problem for Joseph Yobo to provide Jacobsen with his bow as Phil Jagielka reverted to the centre of defence.
Yobo could be out for around a month and also missing was midfielder Tim Cahill who is still struggling with his calf.
The Australian’s absence meant that Moyes reverted to a 4-4-2 formation with Louis Saha starting for the first time since the equally disappointing 1-0 reversal at Wigan in November to partner Jo in attack.
