Moyes has rhythm in the Blues

AMID all the news and noise of Demba Ba developments, Everton arrived on Tyneside almost under the radar but with serious business of their own. A vital commodity called momentum was top of the Evertonian agenda. Like everything else in football, it can be bought and sold. Last January both of these clubs acquired it — Everton with Nikica Jelavic and Newcastle with Papiss Demba Cisse — but Ba’s departure yesterday has left St James’ Park feeling void. Alan Pardew’s side cannot get back what they had last season — and the result from Stamford Bridge added to the chill factor. But it warmed David Moyes. Although Sunday’s loss at Goodison Park to Chelsea was Everton’s first in eight matches and was unlucky, it could have had a disproportionate effect on Moyes’s players. A big reason for that are called Tottenham Hotspur. While it is generally, understandably accepted that Everton have had an impressive first half of the season, certainly more impressive than normal for such slow starters, the December form of Tottenham has squeezed the top of the Premier League. Since losing to two late goals at Goodison, Spurs have taken 13 points from 15. So, although that loss to Chelsea was only Everton’s third in 20 league games, another here would have left them closer to Swansea in eighth than to Tottenham in third. This mattered: and after six minutes of injury time Everton had eased themselves above Arsenal into fifth. Tottenham, in third, remain in sight. ‘Whether we’ll have enough or be good enough, time will tell,’ Moyes said. ‘Maybe we’re getting better, but we still needed Tim Howard.’ Moyes’s team were disciplined and as determined as their manager. They recovered from a second-minute header from Cisse after Johnny Heitinga had barged into Sylvain Distin causing both to miss Tim Krul’s punt. Howard, later to make significant blocks, was stranded and helpless. But the Blues also possess skill. Leighton Baines showed that with a rocket of a free-kick. It looked 35 yards out but soared past Krul, and it gave Everton momentum for the second half. That was aided by the return of Marouane Fellaini after his three-match ban for confronting Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross. Fellaini was effective, committed, influential. It was his touch to Jelavic that led to substitute Victor Anichebe prodding in the visitors’ second. Moyes — and Anichebe — will have felt justice was done there. In the September match between these two, Anichebe had a goal not given, though it was well over the line. He also had a bad memory of St James’, having broken his leg here three years ago, and Moyes added that he hopes the striker will ‘believe in himself more’. Ba’s 90th-minute equaliser was a sickener in September. It turns out that that was the beginning of the end for Ba and Newcastle. Everton, meanwhile, picked themselves up. It is a quality Pardew mentioned in his programme notes, and again afterwards. He also emphasised the ‘experience’ Everton had on display, another one of those precious commodities.