DAVID PRENTICE: Time for Everton to stand up and be counted
MIKEL ARTETA has been called many things during his four-year love affair with the Everton faithful.
Cultured, classy, influential . . . exciting.
But never anonymous.
That was the charge levelled at the best little Spaniard Blues know on a bleak November night in Wigan.
When Phil Neville was replaced five minutes from time in a desperate bid to add some extra attacking impetus, it was Arteta who slipped the captain's armband around his bicep.
It was a symbolic moment - because Arteta needs to accept more responsibility in an Everton jersey.
But he's not alone.
It would be wrong to point the finger of responsibility on a lacklustre evening simply at Arteta.
He chased 40 yards to win back possession in the 85th minute, although he'd given it away in the first place.
The responsibility was collective.
Everton were flat, uninspiring and ultimately well beaten.
Their garish new away strip is described in the advertising brochures as Neon Yellow.
A dazzling, fluorescent kit, the idea is presumably to help footballers find each other more easily.
But the visitors would have struggled to track each other down with a Sat Nav and a spotlight last night.
Too many men went missing.
The poverty of Everton's performance was summed up afterwards by Steve Bruce.
"It's arguably one of our worst performances if I'm being brutally honest," said the Wigan boss. "We gave the ball away far too cheaply."
So Wigan turned in one of their worst performances, and still Chris Kirkland could have been forgiven for putting a coat on to keep himself warm.
In a deceptively bright start Louis Saha forced the Wigan keeper to scramble to his left to parry a well directed drive, but it was the only action he saw all night.
Wigan snatched their lead just five minutes after the break - and Everton didn't trouble the home goalkeeper once in the 40 minutes which remained.
That's a damning indictment.
The men who collate such data are pointing out that Everton's shots on target ratings this season are wretched. Only Stoke lie below them in that particular chart.
Arteta was the focus of some fans' ire last night, if only because his standards are so uncommonly high - and his deadball expertise appears to have abandoned him.
After opening the season with a flurry of assists - Blackburn, West Brom, Stoke and Liege - the free-kick which ended Yakubu's drought last weekend was very much the exception.
When he over-hit another free-kick into the huge ranks of massed fans behind Kirkland's goal last night, the reaction was unsavoury.
But he wasn't helped by another uncomfortable looking midfield formation.
Tim Cahill's roving commission took him to the right flank last night. He gave it his usual 100% application - and even managed to drift infield to produce two of Everton's closer efforts at goal - but again the set-up didn't look quite right.
Marouane Fellaini flattered and too many other performances were inconsequential.
And worryingly, it's been the story of much of this season.
The recent impressive run of results has masked a poor run of form.
Everton haven't played well since the second half of the Manchester United match more than a month ago.
And with a teak tough quartet of fixtures now looming - a visit to a revitalised Spurs, then Aston Villa, Manchester City and Chelsea - the potential to slip back down the table again is a more real possibility than nudging into the top four or five.
White Hart Lane has been the stage for a symbolic rebirth of the Blues in recent seasons - how Everton need another performance like that on Sunday.
daveprentice@liverpoolecho.co.uk
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everton as no width, no one who can command the wing on either side of the field,long balls up the middle to two centre halves who controlled both the yak and saha with ease, neville gives his all but his passing is useless, i'm sure he needs glasses or is colour blind, once again the winning goal came from the right where lescott is supposed to control, i'm not blaming him personally he's all over the place doing what our so called mid fielders should be doing, david moyes must makes it a priority to sign some wide men in the january window, sell the yak he's far too slow and yesterday should have passed the ball instead of blindly shooting for goal, after 20 minutes of last night game i KNEW we had no chance of beating wigan but moyes persisted with the same useless tactics.
You've hit the nail squarely on the head. Although results are important, everyone could see they were masking some poor performances and last night the luck ran out.
Why people are surprised by this shambolic display is beyond me, it all started in the preseason and has continued throughout this season. We were lucky at both Bolton and Stoke and very lucky at West Ham, without those results we would be propping the division up at present, remember luck runs out eventually.
Why have we gone back this term, it's very simple diagnosis, managerial incompetence. Moyes sat back all summer and did nothing until the last minute. Many blame Kenwright for that delay I don't. Moyes freely admits that he was wanting to leave, he believed he had taken us as far as he could, he was right. Moyes must have known how important Carsley was to our squad but he opted not to replace him, Lee Cattermole showed the other night that he could have filled Carley's boots for a relatively small sum. The preseason displays were atrocious, all Moyes would say is that his contract would be signed next week, then the following week, then the week after that resulting in a squad that was disjointed, dispirited and in total disarray. What was his answer, splashing virtually our entire budget on one player who has yet to live up to Moyes's hype. His transfer big money dealings are dreadful constantly paying over the odds for players who lack quality.
The dross Moyes has served up is just not good enough for EFC, it is driving fans away from fortress Goodison. What is Moyes answer, he blames the players, be a man David Moyes and admit it is your fault. His match tactics are embarrassingly basic, he has yet to realise that Lee Carsley is not around to cover the attacking forays of Neville and Lescott leaving both players exposed. Incredibly he has also continued with Arteta taking all dead ball kicks, the little Spaniard has been struggling to get the ball past the first man but Moyes does nothing about it.
The long term future of my club is now lower than when the idiot Smith ruled the roost. Moyes has managed to get us into Europe but as alway we have exited at the first attempt twice because when we come up against a decent side we lose. Domestically our record against the so called big four is pathetic, there is no need to ask why, Moyes tactics yet again.
In the present financial climate no one wants to buy us, Bolshoi fans disrupt any effort to move to a new ground, the team are playing relegation form football and my nightmares continue. Moyes out may become a necessary mantra if he can't do anything about very shortly.