SO practice wasn’t quite perfect. After a summer of increasing encouragement for David Moyes came a gentle reminder of the task in hand to push Everton back among the upper echelons.
Attempts to seal a clean sweep of pre-season friendly victories stalled at the home of Volkswagen at the weekend as Wolfsburg put the brakes on the Goodison outfit’s drive to the start of the new campaign.
Having seen off Sydney FC, Melbourne Heart, Brisbane Roar, Preston North End, Norwich City and their Chilean namesakes, Saturday was a sizeable step up in standard of opposition for Everton, the real litmus test of their warm-up programme.
It showed. Despite being buoyed by the news earlier in the day of Mikel Arteta agreeing to sign a new contract, the Spaniard and his team-mates simply struggled to get out of first gear, the attacking vim and vigour of earlier friendlies conspicuously absent.
Are Everton ready for the new season? On the evidence of Saturday, it would be impossible to confidently answer in the affirmative – they clearly have a little way to go before reaching their optimum level.
A concern, then, that at least seven of the team that started at the weekend can expect to walk out at Ewood Park on Saturday.
Few did themselves justice. It was only when Marouane Fellaini, continuing his comeback from injury, emerged at half-time that Everton began to belatedly stamp some authority on proceedings.
By then, however, it was too late, first-half goals from Mario Mandzukic and Karim Ziani earning Wolfsburg a deserved triumph with Tim Howard’s penalty save from Edin Dzeko serving only to keep the score down.
But there will be no panic at Finch Farm this week. After all, there has already been plenty during pre-season to suggest Everton will avoid the pitfalls of recent years by stuttering out of the blocks.
As such, Saturday’s defeat ensured, should it have been required, that feet will be planted firmly in the ground ahead of the trip to Blackburn Rovers.
There is no doubting Moyes’s men are in much better shape now than last year, the injuries having cleared up and the main recruitment taken place earlier in the transfer window.
