As a new day dawns for Man City’s away record, the moon makes a surprising appearance at the close of their match against the Toffees.
The FA will surely punish Barton for his excess of cheek on the pitch.
Paul Canniff
The Times Online reports that Everton’s Tim Cahill owns a Bugatti Veyron 16.4. Is it about time he shows up on Top Gear? Auto Trader reports,
The whole country’s gone Bugatti crazy. There are now two Veyrons in the country. And I got to sit in one of them this week. Seriously. I got to sit in it. In the drivers’ seat.
Aaaanyway… the other 253mph Veyron has been spotted in Manchester - being driven by WAG Rebekah Greenhill.
The girlfriend of Everton player Tim Cahill parked the £800,000 car in a busy Manchester street, and came back to find it surrounded by a crowd of admiring petrolheads.
Anyway, who else owns what? And who else’s girlfriend has been seen trying to park it?
Mike C.
There is a Maple Lions derby on Sunday with Damian’s Magpies up against my Toffees. Newcastle will not want to lose in quick succession to Merseyside clubs, while Everton will want to shake off a couple of iffy performances (first against Wigan in the Prem, then Posh in Carling Cup play). Should be a good game - on Fox Sports World Canada on Sunday.
Everton are watching the fitness of center back Joseph Yobo who will be key in trying to keep tabs on Martins. Joe’s had some back problems in recent weeks. Weir will be in if Yobo can’t make it, with Stubbsy definitely out with a knee.
I wouldn’t consider Harper as necessarily a weakness, at least from what I could see in the Liverpool game. Damian may feel otherwise. Kuyt’s goal was a good one and tough to do anything about and Roeder was clearly right regarding Alonso’s specky drive, if Harper doesn’t slip it is simply a loss of possession by Liverpool.
For Newcastle, Babayaro is out but Bramble is back and Ameobi is facing a late fitness test for a hip injury.
We’ll see the 4-5-1 from Moyes again with Andy Johnson ranging free up front. Arteta, Cahill, Osman, Carsley and Neville in midfield. I would rather see Nuno Valente at left back than Gary Naysmith. Valente had a great World Cup run with Portugal but he’s had a few months rest now so get him in there. Yobo appears to be Everton’s only injury question-mark, but I’d much rather see him in there with Lescott.
Mike C.
It’s almost too early in the season for a big derby game, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not sure my nerves are quite ready. Oh well, not much to do but watch and enjoy!
It’s the early game on Saturday and is therefore being aired on Sportsnet in Canada. I was dreading them not showing this one. Everton will have to keep its discipline if it hopes to be able to show its new-found form, particularly on the heels of March’s loss in a card-filled affair. Perhaps Mr. Poll will adopt his three-yellows-and-you’re-out policy to compensate.
Carragher and Riise appear to be out for the Reds, with Stubbs and McFadden out for Everton. I would not have expected the Everton scratches to start any way. There are rumours of Gary Naysmith playing as a winger following Kilbane’s departure to Wigan. Hmm, not sure if we’ll see him, but you know Moyes and his Scottish players.
A big question mark for the Toffees is Andy Van der Meyde. Will he start or play? With all his recent problems and seeing red in the last derby, one wonders if Moyes will start him. Will we see Davies as well? Some underperforming acquisitions that should be itching to get out there. Hibbo-Yobo-Lescott-Valente across the back would be nice.
Pip-Leon-Timmate-OurTater would be my guess across the mid field with Beattie and AJ up front. I’d like to see young Victor Anichebe sub for Beattie at some point as well.
What about Liverpool? The Kuyt and Bellamy pairing did look dangerous against West Ham, accounting for an offside goal which was not counted. It was Liverpool’s old boys that worked up Crouchie’s goal. We can probably expect a Crouch-Bellamy start though.
Whatever - we can expect a rip-roaring affair and I hope the ‘06/’07 Everton side shows up and not the ‘05/’06 one.
Looking forward to ManU and Spurs which is also on tv tomorrow; we’ll see if Jol can get his boys reorganized. Tough match to try to get the accomplished, though.
Mikel C.
It seemed to me that Spurs would have been better off if Kevin Kilbane had not been sent off in the 33rd minute of today’s match at White Hart Lane. Lee seemed to have his number and probably would have penetrated from the right side all day long. As it was, I wasn’t overly pleased with the Kilbane start. However, as one of the tv announcer’s mentioned, something happens sometimes to ten-man squads and, whatever it was, it happened to Everton today. They made it to half time with a nil-nil draw, but, still, it didn’t look hopeful for Moyes’ men. Chances were that Tottenham would break them down as the game went on.
But Andrew Johnson started to find his groove in the second half and did some nice work to set up the first goal from an Arteta free kick into the box. A glancing header from the other Everton newcomer, Joleon Lescott, went into the net off of Spurs defender Davenport, but I believe it was Joseph Yobo who was waiting at the far post and probably would have had it. 1-Nil! Could it be?
Some great mid-field work from Leon Osman brought the ball forward on the right to Phil Neville and it was one Steve McLaren call-up to another with a tremendous cross from Neville and a beautiful finish by Andy Johnson. 2-Nil! Unbelieveable!
Tim Howard didn’t need to do much, but did what he had to do when he had to do it. I won’t comment on Martin Jol’s stategy, although the tv commentators certainly had lots of questions; it was a good performance in that respect from Moyes himself.
It took Everton until NOVEMBER 27th to score 5 goals last season and hadn’t hit the 7 points mark until November 6th when a victory brought them to 9 points. Lots of positive things happening in Toffeeland these days. Are Evertonians excited about a better-than-11th-place-finish for 2006-07? You’re frakking right we are! Twenty-one years to the day from their last win at White Hart Lane, Everton goes home with the win.
Mike C.
Just this week, David Moyes was reminding Tim-mate Cahill that he can’t be wandering forward so much like he did two years ago, that, you know, there’s a four-four-two thing happening now with James and Andy up there, so you gotta hold back and take on more of a mid-field role.
Well, thankfully, Cahill didn’t listen too well as he put on his supersub hat today and rescued a point for Everton against Blackburn. South African and Australian internationals scoring the goals today, with Benni McCarthy and Cahill hitting the score sheet.
Yesterday, I caught the replay of AJ’s Saturday goal at Goodison. More of that, please!! Long forward ball from Pip in the right back position, headed on from Beattie up to AJ, headed back to Beattie, with James making a lovely forward lob pass, springing Johnson thru the defence to score. All lovely. Like I said, more of that, lads!
Mike C.
It was an interesting Opening Day of the EPL’s 2006-07 campaign.
Hulse’s header was a real cracker to open the season, and Liverpool will be disappointed with their day at Bramhall Lane. The penalty was a crap call, not that Liverpool didn’t deserve to share the points on the day. The Blades really hustled, though, and started their season off well. The announcers commented later in the game that Arne Riise’s ankle injury may not have been that bad ~ surprising to me given the way it looked.
Reading certainly hold “comeback of the season” honours, thus far. Kitson, Sidwell and Kita notched the goals to wipe out Boro’s 2 goal lead. I believe Sidwell was Four Four Two’s ‘best player outside the Prem’ last season, so he’s definitely one ot watch this year.
At Goodison Park, the guy Everton acquired to score the goals actually scored the opener 14 minutes in. (How odd!) Mikel Arteta added a penalty and Everton edged out Watford for their first opening day win in five years. [Later: it seems both Merseyside clubs were beneficiaries of bad penalty calls on Saturday, Everton’s being the more egregious, apparently. Oh well, what can you do?]
So, it was win, draw, loss for the three promoted teams.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day for me was Pompey trashing Blackburn Rovers. They had a 2 goal cushion before Neil went off, and Todd’s sending off happened in the 91st minute (so, I don’t think saying that it was a victory “over nine-man Blackburn” quite tells the tale). Could this big win by ‘arry’s boys have been the biggest statement of the young season?
We’ll let Damian report on the solid start by Roeder’s Magpies.
You gotta think Chelsea and Manchester United are more than pleased with the points left on the field by Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs (though I write in the 82nd minute of that game).
Mike C
Sky Sports has its preview of the upcoming English Premier League season. Although we had that little tournament in Germany to distract us, it’s high time to get back into things. Can’t wait!
Sky picks no Manchester clubs to finish in the top 3 spots, btw.
As for Everton, Sky foresees an 8th place finish. That’s about right. If you polled most Evertonians, including David Moyes, I bet they would be happy with that. The big anticipation for Toffee fans is how AJ will do ~ we wanna see that hamburger chomp or whatever he does when he scores (anything beats Robbie Keaneian rolls and fist thrusts, if you ask me). I’m interested in seeing what happens at the back — David Weir has the captancy, but will we see youth and strength of Joseph Yobo and Joleon Lescott paired together. Nuno Valente had a solid World Cup and should get off to a good start (he looked a bit shaky at the outset of last season).
Does anyone else think Kuyt is a bit overrated? I just have a feeling he won’t do much this year.
This Saturday, Canadians can see the Reds/Blades, Magpies/Wigan, and Bolton/Spurs on Rogers Sportsnet. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing lined up on Fox Sports World Canada; there must be a Bolivia 2nd division playoff match on or something.
Mike C.
Everton has completed the drawn-out signing of Wolves’ defender and former England u-21 international Joleon Lescott. Lescott was key in a bright season for Wolverhampton in 02/03, but injured his knee at the end of that season and missed the Wolves’ unsuccessful year in the Prem. His arrival presents Everton with strength and athleticism at the back, complementing Joseph Yobo. Hibbert and Portugal World Cup’er Jorge Nuno Valente are at the corners, with Stubbsie providing the experience. It looks like David Weir may be off elsewhere, but we’ll see.
As the past Premier League season was coming to a close, South African striker Benni McCarthy of FC Porto was rumoured to be one of Everton’s targets and potential goal-scoring solutions. They didn’t go for him, trusting instead that Andrew Johnson will be the solution, but it looks like Benni may be coming to Merseyside after all. There’s now talk of Everton and Porto doing a swap with “injury-jinxed” Dutchman Andy van der Meyde leaving and McCarthy coming in.
Van der Meyde doesn’t appear to be fan favourite at Goodison, but I’ll be happy if he stays around. Despite the injury time and a stupid-ass red card during the last Merseyside derby, I thought he brought a lot of craft and creativity to the side. Then there’s his haircut, but we won’t go there. Anyway, he can stay as far as I’m concerned.
That said, it’s intriguing to think of another quality striker arriving at Goodison. AJ, Beattie, and Benni should offer some solid striking power with James McFadden around to pop in the odd one, as well. With Mikel Arteta, Tim Cahill, Leon Osman, Lee Carsley, Simon Davies, Kevin Kilbane and Phil Neville across the midfield, the Toffees might be in good shape there. Could James Beattie fall back a bit and support AJ and Benni? I think Benni, too, would be a good option to bring on as a substitute if a AJ/Beattie attack hadn’t gone anywhere that day.
David Moyes’ transfer budget may be used up, so why not sacrifice a midfielder, albeit a creative one, in favour of another proven striker? Might the Toffees really score some goals next season??
Mike C.
Toffeeweb editor Michael Kenrick is over the moon regarding AJ’s signing. He links to this compliation video of some very nice goals.
What struck me, watching that collage, was of course his pace, but also the fact that this is no one-trick pony: he has produced a great variety of excellent finishes, his ability to run onto the long ball and put it away in with some finesse should fit in particularly well with our style of play. As some have mentioned, though, he masy find things harder with our limited lines of supply…
Maybe Sven should have watched this one, him being so keen on video scouting and all…
Mike C.
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