SOMETIMES it feels as if everyone is going out of their way to say the wrong thing.

Ignoring some of the crass remarks made by Mark Hughes during the ongoing Joleon Lescott drama for one moment – if such a thing is possible – even some relatively throwaway comments made by Everton employees have jarred in the last week.

Perhaps it’s not too surprising though, after all a 6-1 defeat tends to impart a negative spin onto even the most innocent statement.

David Moyes, for instance, said that the Blues’ first priority this season is to reach the relative safety of 40 points and stay in the division. It’s a standard straight bat of an answer, one that makes you chuckle normally and think: “Ooh, he’s a one that Moyes.” That was until Arsenal walked in their fourth goal and Operation Goodison, or at least Operation Get As Far Away As Possible From Goodison, commenced. Then you couldn’t help wonder whether the Everton manager was serious when he talked about safety being a priority.

Clearly there aren’t many teams who can punish mistakes like the Gunners, but still, the manner in which Everton conceded goals and failed to compete will have given inspiration to forthcoming opponents.

At this very moment in time, Owen Coyle must be drumming into his players that Sunday represents as good an opportunity as ever to take a big scalp in this division.

Going back to inappropriate comments, it’s hard to know exactly what Phil Neville was trying to achieve when he pointed out that the team have defended worse than on Saturday before now.

Using Dinamo Bucharest as an example, in a week when we face another Eastern European side in the Europa League, was timed worse than Leighton Baines’s tackle on Nicklas Bendtner.

After Saturday’s game, Moyes also made a comment about his line-up being essentially the same one that started in the FA Cup final.

Maybe we shouldn’t have been so surprised by the result then, because we were weak at Wembley and Chelsea could easily have scored more goals.

We’ve not strengthened since then and so regardless of the Lescott situation, the gap has closed between ourselves and sides like Tottenham and Manchester City who have brought in players and looked impressive on the opening weekend.

Obviously there’s a long way to go yet in the Premier League race, but it’s desperately disappointing to see Everton yet again tangled up in the stalls while the rest of the field are off to a clean start.

And it goes without saying that a good win tonight is absolutely vital. The thought of a squad lacking confidence going out to the Czech Republic without a decent lead just doesn’t bear thinking about.