IT WAS fascinating to hear Mikel Arteta allege that the poke in the eye he administered to Morten Gamst Pedersen at the weekend was in response to a number of bad tackles from the Norwegian stretching back over a number of games.
That’s some excellent grudge-bearing by the Spaniard, who was clearly lucky to avoid dismissal for handing out – every pun intended – his own brand of summary justice to one of football’s least likely hatchet men.
It makes you wonder whether David Moyes, who we imagine does a passable Sean Connery impression, paraphrases the speech from The Untouchables before his players take to the pitch.
Presumably it would go something along the lines of: “If they kick one of ours in the ankle, we poke one of theirs in the eye. If they send one of ours to the physio, we send one of theirs to see respected specialist Dr Richard Steadman in Colorado. It’s the Everton way.”
Thankfully, Arteta only received a yellow card, as he was instrumental – as ever – in everything good that Everton did in what started out feeling like a pre-season friendly, what with the lovely weather and relaxed supporters on both sides, but ended up an absolute thriller.
Arteta makes Everton play, although he’s ably assisted by Steven Pienaar, and perhaps unsurprisingly the speculation has started in earnest about the South African’s future, with Spurs the first club to be strongly linked for a move in the summer.
All we can do is hope that Everton can somehow tempt him to stay, but you can’t help but fear that it’s going to be hard.
If a club come in offering to double what a player could earn at Goodison and the opportunity to play Champions League football, Moyes can make all the heartfelt pleas he wants, he’s talking to an empty chair.
It might sound defeatist to think in those terms, but as Evertonians we’ve seen enough of these situations arise in recent history to have a pretty good indication of how they usually play out.
Stranger things have happened though, so there’s some hope that Pienaar will still be at Goodison next season, when marked men like Kevin Nolan, Aaron Mokoena and Sotirios Kyrgiakos will all be well advised to don their safety goggles and an extra pair of shin pads.
