Hull City could be catalyst for Everton FC's festive treats

By Administrator on Dec 10, 09 07:43 AM in Fans

A VISIT to Stamford Bridge at the moment is about as welcome as an argument with Tony Pulis, and it feels as if Everton are going to go there on Saturday, take their medicine and then prepare themselves for the crucial games over the Christmas period.

The best moment we've enjoyed at Chelsea in recent years was Tim Cahill's last- minute overhead equaliser, and even he's absent for this trip following the yellow card he picked up against Tottenham on Sunday.

Again though, with games coming up against teams like Birmingham and Burnley, David Moyes probably won't be too disappointed that his acting captain is getting his rest out of the way now.

In normal circumstances we would look back at the last couple of home results - a defeat and a draw - and feel disappointed.

However, the one plus that came from the horror show at the KC Stadium the other week was that any improvement whatsoever would give a feeling of progress and momentum.

And the spirit and desire that was so clearly missing at Hull was back in evidence in the games against Liverpool and Spurs, and indeed in Athens given the personnel available.

Apart from the sheer exhiliration of the fightback and the injury-time penalty save on Sunday, the highlight was the form of Seamus Coleman.

The Irish full-back looked solid enough in the Olympic Stadium, where the onus was dealing with the conditions and keeping things simple, but against a pretty good Spurs team it was his energy going forward that caught the eye and indeed turned the match completely.

There's a lot to be said for simply pushing the ball into space and running after it - the likes of Glen Johnson have made England careers out of it - and it was Coleman's willingness to do just that which caused Tottenham all sorts of problems.

In fact, some of his more senior teammates could do with taking note.

Tim Howard clearly deserves a mention too.

He has his critics, because when he does mess up he seems to do it in the most outlandish fashion, but even when he's let soft goals in his head has never dropped like perhaps it did when he was under pressure at Old Trafford.

He's even shaken the tag of being the keeper who never saves penalties too, adding Sunday's dramatic stop to the couple he made at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final shootout in April.