Surprised no one has posted this crappy article, I read half of it and gave up otherwise I would have hit the screen!! I really do hate Everton, their jealous fans and jealous 'journalists!'
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YOU can have all the Sheikh’s billions but there are still some things money can’t buy. Everton and Manchester City once had much in common, now they are like chalk and cheese.
The team City put out at Goodison was assembled at a cost of £110million.
The three substitutes Roberto Mancini brought on were signed at a combined bill of £45m, around the same price as Everton’s entire starting line-up.
David Moyes would have been within his rights to cast a few envious glances towards the away dugout.
Moyes’s mission to take his club forward has undoubtedly been hampered by a lack of funds, while in contrast Mancini has inherited a bottomless pit of cash to realise Abu Dhabi businessman Sheikh Mansour’s dream of world domination. However, what Moyes has at Everton you can’t put a price on.
His players play for each other and they have pride in the shirt. That passion, desire and collective spirit was clear for all to see on Saturday as City were taught a lesson.
Mancini arrived on the crest of a wave following four straight wins after taking over from Mark Hughes. The Italian left thanking his lucky stars his side weren’t handed a more humiliating defeat.
The scoreline hardly reflected the extent of Everton’s dominance.
First half goals from the exceptional Steven Pienaar and Louis Saha put Everton firmly in control and only the woodwork and poor finishing denied them further reward after the break.
They had the game’s outstanding performer in Marouane Fellaini. The Belgian is enjoying a rich vein of form and clearly flourishing in the holding midfield role.
His manager has hailed him as currently the best midfielder in the top flight and on Saturday’s evidence it’s hard to argue with that assessment.
Fellaini broke up countless City attacks and got Everton moving again. He dominated in the air, was tidy in possession and capped off a good night’s work with a classy dragback and pirouette to outfox Craig Bellamy late on.
The Gwladys Street lapped it up and the only thing missing from Fellaini’s performance was a goal – with Shay Given’s heroics denying him the icing on the cake.
Victory extended Everton’s unbeaten league run to seven games and finally lifted them into the top half of the table.
Not since the Merseyside derby at the end of November have they tasted defeat in the league and now the challenge is to kick on and compete for a top six finish.
It’s a tough ask considering the ground they need to make up but standards have been set that need to be maintained.
This was also a personal triumph for Moyes who was desperate to put one over City following the way they went about signing Joleon Lescott last summer.
A knee injury meant there was no Goodison return for the £22million centre-back but his former manager’s programme notes highlighted just how much that saga still rankles.
There is no doubt that Manchester City treated us with little respect and broke rules in the summer,” the Everton manager wrote.
“I found it hard to accept that a club that until recently had many similarities to Everton should suddenly start acting with no class.”
His side began like they were under strict orders to exact retribution for City’s arrogance. Mancini’s men were never given time to settle on the ball as those in royal blue snapped at their heels and forced them into errors.
Martin Petrov had an early effort pushed away by Tim Howard but after it was one-way traffic.
Everton were superior in all departments and the only surprise was how long it took them to find a breakthrough.
Carlos Tevez, who had scored seven in his previous four league games, was expertly marshalled by rock-solid John Heitinga and Sylvain Distin, who returned from injury to make his first start since December 2.
The prolific Argentinian spent most of the game either on his backside or readjusting his alice band, while Bellamy continuously snarled at his team-mates for the pitiful lack of service.
The early loss of Roque Santa Cruz to injury hardly helped their cause and his replacement Robinho suffered the insult of being substituted himself on the hour mark.
The £32.5m Brazilian, who is reported to earn £160,000 a week, strolled around seemingly disinterested and the only surprise was that Mancini waited so long to haul him off.
In stark contrast, when Distin ran out of gas, young full-back Seamus Coleman came on and fitted in seamlessly with Phil Neville switching to centre-back.
Coleman, who cost roughly the same as three days wages for Robinho, gave everything for the cause and helped ensure City never had a sniff.
In fact Everton should have rubbed salt into the visitors’ wounds.
With 12 minutes to go Fellaini powered Donovan’s corner goalwards but Given somehow touched it onto the bar and Bilyaletdinov wastefully lashed the rebound over.
Next it was Cahill’s turn to curse his luck as his header from Leighton Baines’ cross left Given beaten but bounced back off the woodwork.
“Lescott, what’s the score?” chanted the home supporters.
This was a sweet triumph. In fact you could say it was priceless.
